Cognitive research categorizes detergent scents that clean collars promising white like bleach stains. Postmodern dilemmas metastasize the Pepsi challenge onto the dialectical mapping of consumer forethought. What is the relevance of empty cans to possible outcomes?
Teenagers wait in line for free samples, toe tapping in sequence with Muzak playing through loudspeakers posted to the Mall’s ceiling. A child averts their eyes from the back of their mother’s shoes and catches their reflection in a storefront window. The child studies their raised eyebrows in the glass, motions them like a caterpillar crawling across their forehead. This motion trains them in the necessary combat techniques against boredom. The child stares past their translucent features, places someone shopping for earrings, inside their vantage. (Voyeurism: a reckoning with the imagination, or an invitation for Innocence Lost.)

A man wearing a sport coat borrows the storefront glass, straightens a pocket square jutting out of his breast pocket, marks the navy blue corner as fashionable, yet, unassuming, with purpose. He smiles and remembers what he thought before leaving his house. “I’ll have time to fix this later.”
At the novelty store, she peers over shoulder, notices dandruff flakes bespeckeling the fabric. An open Hulk comic is balanced over her palm. She places it back on the shelf and uses her now free appendages to clear the cotton of the skin flakes.
He sits at the foodcourt. Behind him is a Taco Bell, before him is an empty store. Red curtains disguise the space, suggesting its contents are a magic trick waiting to reveal the Prestige. He holds up his left hand, fingers splayed and looks at it. Sunlight stays the scenery, and poses shadows around his wrinkles. He remembers tracing his fingers onto computer paper during childhood and not knowing what to do with the outline. His teacher suggested it be a turkey, but he always considered the bald eagle to be the bird Americans should model their hands after.