I was trapped like a puppy stuck in a drain hole. I literally had no where to go. It looked as though every car in New Hampshire decided to either come or go in the parking lot around the mall. I was starting to believe there were no exits; only entrances.

I understand the concept of writing a Holiday story is a bit late. But, after the experience of what it was like a couple of days before Christmas must still be fresh in the drivers and passengers of those cars I escaped. I just hope most of them had the same luck.

My wife and I decided to go through the Fox Run Mall in Newington, New Hampshire. We did not want to go shopping, we were going to one of our favorite restaurants in the area. We took the back way hoping to get around the holiday traffic. Needless to say we were wrong. Plunging ourselves into what I thought was an accident on the road I decided to go through the parking lot. At first I thought this a good idea but after I turned the corner near the stores I knew I was about to make one of my biggest mistakes of the outgoing year.

Looking out from the cab of my truck all I could see was the red tail lights of hundreds if not thousands of cars. None of them were moving. At first I thought I would attempt to back up out of the parking lot. Since there were cars that had the same thought I had earlier this was obviously an impossible task.

After sitting for about fifteen minutes I decided to sneak around the line in order to see what I was facing. Since I was in a truck, small snow piles from a previous storm was not a problem. That is unless there was a guard rail or very small car hidden underneath them. Sliding past a couple of trapped cars I noticed most of the drivers were not in the Christmas spirit. How could they be since they are probably in the midst of missing most of the holidays if not the new year.

I moved deeper into the hole that used to be a parking lot hoping to find some sort of escape route. Things were going well until I ended up staring into a line of cars that probably haven't moved for some time. They were all bumper to bumper daring anyone to even attempt to cross their paths and thus get closer to a possible escape route. Then something mysterious happened. The car directly in front of me started to move. I then put my truck into gear and attempted to squeeze between it and the car that had been in back of it. I could see the crimson eyes of the women in the car I was attempting to get in front of. At first I didn't think it was human. Then I heard a wild scream even though all the cars around me had their windows closed. Since I knew this would be my only chance I eased the bumper of my truck so that it inched, or I should say millimetered in front of the alien car. To my surprise it worked and I was able to get through the line of cars deeper into the parking lot. At the time I did not know whether this was a good thing but the capacity to be able to leave the stare of that monster in the car was worth it.

After that the challenge was obvious. I worked my truck in and out of the aisles of stuck cars in order to achieve some concept of how to get out of there. We spent another fifteen minutes working our way through the various escape routes we knew used to exist from past times driving around the mall. At one point I thought I saw a stop light that would mean a possible escape route. To my dismay it was a Christmas display laughing at all around it as it swayed back and forth in the winter wind.

My wife and I then decided to park my truck and get something to eat in the mall and since we were there finish up our Christmas shopping. Maybe this was some tactic to get more people shopping and thus spending money. As soon as I entered the mall I knew if this was a plot to save the Christmas selling season it failed miserable. The mall was empty. Without a doubt there were more cars stuck in the parking lot surrounding the mall then there were people in the mall.

We walked into a Mexican Restaurant and were immediately seated. The restaurant was probably having its worse date of the year. Sitting at the bar overlooking a large window all I could see were the red back lights of the many cars stuck trying to escape. My wife and I decided to get some things for Christmas and were pleased there were no lines. After about an hour we decided to again attempt to escape. Walking to my truck it appeared no one had moved.

But, probably because of the few 'Coronas' I had in the restaurant and my wife's OK to get her out of the trap by any means I took on larger snow piles that had light posts sticking out of them. My four-wheel-drive truck did was it was supposed to and even though I may have run over a few guard rails or hopefully empty shopping baskets we made our way until we saw an escape route onto the main road that led into the mall. Seeing that my truck was now being driven by a maniac the other cars waiting in line decided to let me in.

Within another half-hour we escaped and were again pleasantly surprised there were no traffic tie ups on the main road. Like the interior of the mall it felt like it was a late February night.

There has to be thousands of people with similar stories to tell about the night the parking lot decided to trap anyone who dared to drive through it. If anyone has similar stories I would love to hear from them. Except of course for the demonic woman I snuck in front of. I would assume she is still there.

Jim Fabiano, a teacher and writer who lives in York, is a past recipient of the Maine Press Association's award for Best Weekly Column, and writes an education blog called 'Dinosaur of Education”. You can E-mail Jim at: jfabino@maine.rr.com, or comment on his blog at:  http://fabiano.magic-city-news.com/