It was getting dark and I and a buddy were in the parking lot of the former La Fiesta Mall in Marpi. Sitting under the old, ominous-looking tower with the huge clock up above, I could feel goose bumps as silence engulfed the whole place.
I’d been at the La Fiesta mall several times in the past with companions, picking our way through the ruins, the debris-filled hallways, peeking through the rooms and shouting “hello” into the vast emptiness and hearing our voices echo.
I have seen the place come to life with gun shots echoing through the hallways whenever the Department of Public Safety uses the place as a training area.
I’ve heard hundreds of stories about the glory days of La Fiesta Mall before it finally closed its doors.
Now, no traces of the once-largest shopping and entertainment center on Saipan remained except for these forsaken buildings with peeling paint, shards of broken glass from the shattered windows and dangling plywood from cracked ceilings. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for these buildings that have been mute witnesses to events of the past.
Somehow, in the deepening darkness and deafening silence, it was hard to imagine that just a few years back the place bustled and throbbed with life.
The three sections — Fiesta I, II, and III — which used to house shops, fast food restaurants, designer boutiques and a concert hall where performers belted out live musical renditions every night have become a thing of the glorious past.
We didn’t dare wander in the empty halls in the dark albeit the temptation to do so was strong. I didn’t exactly relish the thought of being arrested for burglary.
We left the ruins with a heavy heart, feeling sorry for the days-gone-by when La Fiesta stood in all its glory, a past that I was not even a part of.
