Hats and Cats

Lena sat on the wooden floor of her apartment, lacing up her starry sneakers with great care. Her shopping trip with Zan was scheduled to begin in just a few minutes, and she wanted to be as prepared as possible. But she’d never done anything like this before, and the only preparation she could think of was putting on her shoes.

Pacing around her open plan living area, Lena’s anxiety threatened to snowball. Fortunately, the doorbell rang before things could get much worse.

Lena practically threw herself at her front door and pulled it open without any hesitation, revealing a sheepish looking Zan.

“Heya! Sorry I’m a tad early,” She grinned, holding her hands behind her back, “I was just so excited I couldn’t help myself!”

It was a sentiment Lena shared.

“It’s okay.” Lena said, stepping out of her home. “I’m excited too. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“Well, don’t worry!” Zan nudged Lena’s shoulder with her own as they began walking. “I’ll be there to guide you, and make sure you get some cute clothes too.”

Lena smiled and brushed a strand of her hair out of her face. “Thank you.”

--

One medium length tram journey later, they arrived at what Zan called the Forest Mall. It was obvious to Lena where the ‘forest’ part of the name came from; the paths wove around and through the humungous trees, climbing high into the air and connecting a collection of stores together.

It was by far the busiest place Lena had ever been to. People bustled around her, chatting in pairs or larger groups. Lena was frozen to the spot.

Zan smiled as she watched Lena’s face of awe slowly taking it all in, then remembered some of the advice Vera had offered when planning their trip.

“Tell me if you get overwhelmed, and I’ll take you back home.” Zan spoke softly, her words almost lost in the crowd.

Lena nodded and blinked herself out of her third body experience.

“Thank you.”

“Of course!”

Zan held out her arm, and Lena looped hers through it. Zan made sure to tone down her usual peppy walk a tad, so Lena could look around freely and not worry about keeping up.

--

The girls’ first stop was at the centre of Forest Mall, the High Tree.

The tree itself was abnormally huge – a football pitch in width at least – and was made even more abnormal by its hollowed out insides. They entered through an arch on the ground floor, greeted by rails and stalls filled with clothes and people weaving through them like a well ordered ant colony.

Zan tapped a large metal box by the entrance with her bracelet, which opened up and began hovering in the air. Lena looked at it with her face of perpetual bewilderment.

“This is a trolley!” Zan began explaining, and led Lena away from the archway so they weren’t causing traffic. The flying box followed them.

“It’ll follow us around,” Zan continued, “And if we see something we like, we put it inside, so we don’t have to carry it.”

“That’s neat.”

Zan grinned. “Right?!”

The girls looped their arms together again, a precaution so Lena wouldn’t get separated and lost, and just a nice bit of human contact. They roamed about the first floor.

“Anything catch your fancy?” Zan asked, prompting a shrug from Lena.

“Well, uh, it all looks nice… I just don’t know if any of it would suit, or fit, me.”

“Girl, don’t worry about that!” Zan said, her voice laced with amusement. “Once we’ve picked out some stuff, we can go to a dressing room, and you can try it all on.”

“Oh.” Lena paused. “Really?”

“Really. And the trolley can hold a lot more than you think, so be shameless! Throw in anything you like!”

The concept of being shameless was new to Lena, but it sounded fun. She stared at a point behind Zan’s shoulder, then reached over to grab the first thing that took her fancy.

“Oh? What did you pick?” Zan inquired.

Lena held up the hanger, turning it so the front of the sweater and the derpy cat face upon it were facing Zan.

“That’s… nice.”

Lena silently nodded, and dropped it into the dark void of the trolley.

“Do you mind if I pick some stuff out for you too?” Zan asked, hoping to single handedly save Lena’s wardrobe.

Much to her delight, Lena nodded.

The ugly jumper was Lena’s only addition to the trolley from the entire first floor, and it was Zan who ended up being the most shameless out of the two. The second floor was much of the same; Zan made sure to pick out enough clothes for any situation, while Lena only picked out a cardigan with big sleeves that was patterned to look like a monarch butterfly.

Once the second floor had been thoroughly raided for its goods, the girls made their way to the dressing rooms. Zan stepped inside the little cubicle first, pulled out the clothes from the trolley and grouped them into outfits for Lena to try.

Lena stepped in and tapped her bracelet on a panel beside the curtain, as per Zan’s instruction, and the curtain filled the door frame and turned solid. She changed into the first outfit, turned the curtain back to a normal curtain, and peeked out behind.

She caught Zan’s eye, who said, “Lemme see it properly!”

Lena fully stepped out, revealing a short denim dungaree dress, with black tights and a beige turtleneck underneath. She folded her arms in front of her and hunched her shoulders forward to make herself seem smaller.

“Aww, that’s cute! I love it!” Zan said, grinning, “What do you think?”

Lena shrugged; her cheeks flushed a light pink.

“Um, I mean… I do feel kinda cute…”

“Only kinda? Girl, you’re adorable!” Zan became Lena’s personal cheering squad, “That outfit gets a big yes from me, let’s see another!”

Lena shyly slinked behind the curtain and tried on the next bundle of clothing that Zan had picked out. The next hour or so proceeded like this – Lena shyly revealing the next outfit, being flattered by Zan’s compliments, then slinking back behind the curtain to hide. The cycle continued until finally Lena ran out of clothes to try.

“Do you want to wear one of the outfits out of here?” Zan asked through the curtain.

Lena, who had just started to put the clothes back in the trolley, paused. “I can do that?”

“Of course you can!”

“Oh, okay. Just give me a moment.”

Lena returned to the first outfit she tried on, but layered the predominantly orange butterfly cardigan over it.

“That’s cute!” Zan said as Lena stepped out. “How’re you doing?”

Lena hid her hands in the large sleeves and gave a small smile. “This is fun.”

“Do you have enough energy to keep going?”

Lena brought one sleeve up to her mouth and nodded.

“Awesome!” Zan looped their arms together again. “Then let us accessorise!”

--

They ascended a few floors of the High Tree to reach a floor full of bags, hats, jewellery, shoes and more. Zan’s shamelessness had finally rubbed off on Lena, who threw a few different items into the trolley with pure joy.

But pure joy wasn’t an emotion Lena was familiar with, and it made her feel unsettled. She tried to distract herself by picking up a blue sun hat patterned like the sky, with clouds drifting across the surface.

“Do you ever feel like you’re in a dream, and any moment now you could wake up to a horrible existence?” Lena’s doubts slipped out.

“What?”

“Uh, I mean… I think this hat would look nice?”

She placed the hat on her head. People say fashion is subjective, but in this case it was not; the hat looked objectively bad when paired with the orange of her cardigan. Zan wasn’t going to point that out, though.

“Do you want to get it?” Zan asked.

Lena wasn’t entirely sure, but she wanted to cover for her weird words earlier, so she dropped the hat into the trolley.

“I think that’s probably enough for now, right?” Lena asked, unsure but desperate to move on.

Zan grinned and nodded. “For sure, you’ve got a whole bunch of good stuff here!”

Lena smiled a small smile, and looked to the floating trolley with curiosity. She pointed to it and cocked her head.

“Right,” Zan said, “We can send this back to your home now.”

“We can?”

“Yep! Tap your bracelet against it.”

Lena did so, and a hologram appeared above the box.

‘Would you like to send your items back to your home?’

‘Yes/No’

While most people would carefully tap at the incorporeal light, Lena swiped at the ‘Yes’ in an undignified manner and let her hand fall through the light. But the input was still recognised, and the trolley floated off into the distance.

Zan checked and double checked that Lena wasn’t about to have a breakdown, then led her out of the High Tree and to a nearby café called Sweet Dreams.