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Then I hear the crying. A baby crying. Oh my god.
At the end of the aisle, I spot a stroller. Louis. Louis is in the stroller.
“You’re shoplifting with the baby, Stacey?!” Adrenaline floods my brain. I’m no longer thinking straight. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Alana, what do I do?!” Stacey demands, her eyes wide with fear. “I can’t get arrested, Alana. I can’t leave Louis!”
The police officer appears at the end of the aisle, her eyes bouncing from my sister, to me, to the hollering baby in his stroller.
Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.
Mayor Thompson enters the store and strolls up next to his daughter. His eyebrow hitched. “Well, well, well. What seems to be going on here?”
Tonya takes a step forward. She nudges Stacey’s backpack with the toe of her boot. Diapers, baby formula, packets of soup fall out. The police officer’s eyes move to my sister’s face. “Is this yours?” she questions.
My sister’s face is so pale, she looks like she’s about to pass out.
And then there’s Louis. Squirming and bawling in his stroller.
I don’t know what I’m thinking. I’m not thinking.
I bend down and snatch the bag by the strap. I look the police officer in the eye. “The backpack is mine.”
* * *
Davis’s handsome,devastated face flashes before my mind. “You. Can’t. Have him, Alana,” I whisper forcefully to myself as the tears begin to fall.
I stuff the folder and the shoe box back into my closet. I lock the memories somewhere in the recesses of my mind. Wrapping my robe around my listless body, I head into the kitchen and make myself a cup of tea.
Sitting at the table with my laptop, I decide to cheer myself up by going online and filling up my shopping cart with a bunch of useless things I don’t need. Sometimes online shopping is the only thing that temporarily dulls the pain.
I click around mindlessly, adding way too many things to my cart but feeling too miserable to have any regret.
Those plates are pretty.Add.
This plant tower would look nice in the corner.Add.
Now I need a bunch of fake plants I can’t kill.Add. Add. Add.
These sheets are a great deal. Add. Satin pillowcases are all the rage right now.Add.
And just to make sure my choices aren’t completely meaningless, I throw in one of those fancy water bottles that help track how much you drink.
I’ll probably just end up donating everything anyway. I sigh.
When I decide I’ve hit my arbitrary limit for the night, I head to the virtual checkout. Emotionally numb, I enter my banking information and hit ‘pay now’.
An error message flashes in my face. Card declined.
I let out a loud, frustrated scream.Okay. Enough is enough.
34
DAVIS
“Come on. Let’s give a warm welcome to Chief Deputy Sheriff Westbrook!”
Cheers erupt, and I grin. I’ll take flattery in just about any form these days. Even if it’s only from a bunch of fidgety eight and nine year olds who are sitting ‘criss-cross applesauce’ on the gym floor.
