The Parking Lot Score: 0 Moves: 1
It's Christmas Eve. Rather late on Christmas Eve.
Just this afternoon your darling 7-year-old daughter Samantha announced that fully a week ago she mailed a letter to Santa Claus asking for Sugar Toes Ballerina, the unbelievably sought-after, impossible-to-find fad doll of the decade. Unwilling to see little Sam heartbroken on Christmas morning, you frantically phoned every toy store in town. Miraculously, you found a shop that claimed to have a Sugar Toes Ballerina in stock!
But that was two hours ago -- before the flat tire. Now it's getting dark, and icy weather is closing in. The address you were given, on the outskirts of town, has proven to be that of a dilapidated and disreputable-looking shopping center -- not a modern chrome-and-neon strip mall, either, but a hulking two-story structure that looks to be the ill-favored offspring of a fairy castle and a canning factory. The shopping center is tucked well back from the street among brooding skeletal trees. Other than a few dim yellowish lights that show no trace of holiday spirit, the building is shrouded in gloom, and yours is the only car in the parking lot.
An Interactive Seasonal Shopping Emergency
Copyright (c) 1999 by Jim Aikin.
Release 1 / Serial number 991128 / Inform v6.21 Library 6/9
Except for your car and the dirty snowdrifts in the corners, this broad expanse of pavement is entirely empty. The wind whistles a little, and instinctively you hunch your shoulders and turn up your collar. The dark bulk of the shopping center squats in decaying splendor to the south, and a paved walkway leads in that direction.
[Note: For full instructions on how to play the game, type 'help' at any time.]
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