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They had forty-five minutes to kill before stealing one of Celia’s dresses, so after waiting for Harvey to leave the General Store with his rent money, they stopped in to pick up a bag of potato chips to round out Gertie’s picnic fare. Gertie could feel her underboob sweat drenching her stuffing, so she grabbed an extra two rolls of toilet paper to keep Bridget and Marilyn pumped up and feeling fresh.
A warm, deep voice called out, “Hey, Ida Belle.”
Gertie cleared her throat.
Walter looked over at her. “Hello to you too, Gertie. Marge.”
Walter stood behind the counter. Walter’s daddy, Big Eddie, owned the General Store, so much of Walter’s time was spent working the cash register. On his off time, he pined for Ida Belle, though he’d always been too shy to officially ask her out. Ida Belle never lacked for a date, so Walter probably thought she’d say no. But the way Ida Belle softened when he was around told Gertie the answer would have been “yes.”
Walter cleared his throat. “As you know, I’ll be heading out to join the Marines soon.”
Ida Belle nodded. “And we’ll be heading off to the Women’s Army Corps in Alabama. A week before you, right?”
Walter chewed his bottom lip. “That’s right. I was, um... I was wondering if maybe I could write you while you were away. You wouldn’t have to write me back or anything.”
She smiled. “I’d write back.”
His eyes widened. “Really? I’ll be heading to—”
“Parris Island, South Carolina,” Ida Belle said, finishing for him. “I asked your dad where you were going. Figured I’d drop you a line or two. We Sinful recruits have to keep in touch and look out for one another.”
He nodded, flashing those long eyelashes at her.
Marge leaned into Gertie. “Oh brother,” she whispered.
Gertie set the potato chips and toilet paper on the counter just as Big Eddie entered from the back storeroom. He looked at Walter and shook his head. “Boy, if you could take your eyes off Ida Belle, you have a customer waiting.”
Walter’s cheeks flushed. Big Eddie looked down at the items. “Another two rolls of toilet paper? You’d better not be planning on TPing anyone’s house. You know the city council outlawed that after the TP Wars of ’59.”
He shot them all an accusing glance.
Ida Belle shook her head innocently. “Too bad Sheriff Lee never found the perpetrators.”
“Well, maybe if the perpetrators hadn’t TP’d his horse, he could have ridden over to the Chicoron’s house in time and caught them in the act. It took Sheriff Lee fifteen minutes to unwrap Barnaby.”
“Sounds like strategic planning on their part,” Gertie said. “Whoever they were. And how come when it’s the Chicoron’s house getting TP’d that suddenly it’s the devil’s work? My house got TP’d once. You didn’t see my parents crying to the city council.”
Big Eddie was following her rant when his eyes grew large. She was wondering how long it would take him to notice.
“Did your momma get a look at you before you left the house today?”
“My momma can look all she wants,” Gertie said. “I’m twenty years old, with two years of junior college under my belt. I can leave the house looking however I please.”
Big Eddie shook his head. “It’s my guess she didn’t.”
Walter took his eyes off Ida Belle and glanced over at Gertie. His eyebrows almost jumped off his forehead. He looked back down at the cash register and rang up her purchase. “That’ll be sixty-seven cents.”
She fished inside her coin purse and slapped down the exact change.
Big Eddie shook his head. “So what are the chips for? As I recall, you three have had creative uses for potato chips.”
Marge sighed. “That was years ago. And no one ever proved it was us.”
Gertie slapped a hand on her hip. “What do you mean what are they for? For eating. We’re going on a picnic.”
Big Eddie chuckled. “I can tell the three of you are up to no good.”
“Can’t a girl buy toilet paper and potato chips and not be up to something?” Marge asked.
Big Eddie placed Gertie’s items in a grocery bag and handed it to Gertie. “Sure. But you three aren’t ordinary girls. And that punk Harvey Chicoron just bought my last bottle of Aqua Velva. Said he needed it for a picnic he was going on.” Big Eddie ran a hand across the stubble on his chin. “You’re aware your cousin, Barbara is dating Harvey, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I’ve been made aware of that unpleasant fact.”
“What’s your cousin thinking?”
Gertie shrugged. “Not with her head, that’s for sure. But you know Barbara. She’s never more convinced she’s right than when everyone’s telling her she’s wrong.”
Big Eddie’s lips curled up. “Well, whatever you have planned, I hope it works.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Big Eddie.” Their eyes met. “But if we did have something planned, you could bet it would be a doozy.” Gertie grabbed the bag from the counter.
––––––––
Ida Belle lingered by Walter’s cash register as Gertie and Marge walked to the door. She watched as Walter gathered up the change for the toilet paper and potato chips and dropped the coins into the drawers. “So I guess I’ll see you around,” she said to him.
He looked up at her and she was struck by how beautiful his eyes were. A mixture of green and brown. Hazel. Yeah, that’s what they were. Ida Belle had never really given eyes much thought. But his just now gave her an odd sensation. A uniquely female sensation deep inside.
He smiled. “What?”
Damn, he’d caught her staring at him. “Uh...” She noticed Gertie’s receipt hanging from the register. “You forgot her receipt.”
His smile disappeared. “Oh... right.” He tore off the receipt and handed it to her. Their fingertips touched and once again she felt it. That sensation.
“Are you coming?” a voice asked. Her mind suddenly seemed a bit... muddled. It was hard for her to even place the voice, though she knew she’d heard it before.
A hand latched onto her upper arm. “Are you okay? Oh, is that my receipt?” She realized the voice and hand on her arm belonged to Gertie. She looked at Walter as a smile slowly formed on his face. Crap. He knew he’d had that effect on her. That’s why he was smiling.
“See you around,” he said, closing the register drawer.
“Maybe.” Rule number one: when a man catches you under his spell, act cool until it passes. She turned to leave with Marge and Gertie and ran into a display for shaving cream.
“You okay?” Walter asked from behind the counter.
“Fine,” Ida Belle said. She whispered to Gertie, “Let’s get out of here.”
They turned to walk to the door just as it opened. A man stepped inside. Full red beard, wearing jeans and a T-shirt that was tight around his beer belly. A couple of inches of curly red hair stuck out of the bottom of his floppy hat. Marge grabbed Ida Belle’s arm and pulled her into the household items aisle, signaling to Gertie to join them. “That’s him,” she whispered. Ida Belle peeked over the top of the shelves as the stranger greeted Walter and Big Eddie.
“That’s the guy I saw in the bushes outside Aunt Louanne’s house.”
“I’ve never seen you in town before,” Big Eddie said to him. “Just passing through?”
“Yeah, just rolled into town.”
“That’s a lie,” Marge whispered. “I saw him yesterday.”
“I made a reservation at the Sinful Motel,” Floppy Hat said. “Thought I’d stay a couple of days before heading on to New Mexico.”
Big Eddie and Walter laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Floppy Hat asked.
“You’d be the first person I know to get a reservation at the motel. Not like it fills up,” Big Eddie said.
“I saw it in the directory and called. I don’t like surprises.” He paused. “Say, I saw a photo shop down the street. Have any idea when it closes?”
“Miss Louanne closes about four thirty,” Walter said. “But that’s the shop part. She does her developing and printing for a couple of hours after that. Either at her house or in the back of the store.”
Marge shot them a worried glance.
“Hopefully I’ll have time to stop in later and buy some film. For now, though, I’d like some lunchmeat and bread, if you got it.”
While Walter and Big Eddie tended to the customer, the girls slipped out the front. Ida Belle reached up to the bell over the door and held the clapper so it wouldn’t clang. She couldn’t help herself, taking one last look inside the store. Mr. Floppy Hat was staring straight at the three of them.
Though his stare was unnerving, she found herself asking, “Are you a birder?”
“A what?” he asked.
“A birder. Someone who takes photos of birds.”
He shook his head. “Why do you ask?”
“No reason.”
She shut the door behind her and joined Gertie and Marge.
“Why’d you talk to him?” Gertie asked.
“Because he was looking right at us.”
“He was near my aunt’s house. And now he wants to know when she quits for the evening,” Marge added.
“Should we go back and warn her?” Ida Belle asked. “Who knows, maybe he plans on going back to her shop and robbing it after she leaves. She has some pretty nice cameras on display in the front.”
“You know my aunt. She’ll just shrug it off like she did this morning.”
Marge knew her aunt more than anyone did. But just for good measure they did go back and warn her. Marge had been right. Miss Louanne waved them off, telling them not to give it another thought. But Ida Belle saw something in her eyes that told her Miss Louanne knew more than she was saying. As they left the shop, Ida Belle recalled the look the man gave them and how it had unnerved her. Her thoughts then strayed to Walter, and how his look and touch had also unnerved her, but in a different way. Two different men and two different reactions. Why was it that her reaction to Walter scared her the most?