Mom was at work when Jane dropped me off at home and I was a little bummed out. I was so excited and needed to talk to someone to share my great experience with, but who?
Once his harness was removed, Hershey found a patch of sun across the living room floor to rest in. He deserved his time alone, my hard working little Hershey Kiss!
I felt restless and really wanted some company, so I picked up my phone and scanned through my very small contact list to Brandon’s number. It was odd that Brandon was the one person that came to mind at that moment, but I felt I had more of a connection with him than anyone else.
“Ellen,” Brandon said when he answered the phone. At first I was surprised he knew it was me, but then I realized that when a number you have listed in your contacts calls you, the name reads across the screen. That should tell you how many phone calls I’ve received in my life!
“Hey, Brandon, are you busy?” I asked.
“No, in fact I’m bored to death right now. I have the car though; do you want to do something?” he asked.
“Sure!” I said. “What do you have in mind?”
“We could go to the mall. I’ll call Cindy and see if she’s free, and then come pick you guys up.”
“That sounds great.” I said, doing a mental tally of how much money I had to spend. “I’ll see you in a little while then.”
Another first for me, shopping at the mall with friends! If this wasn’t the best summer of my life, then I couldn’t imagine what would be. I normally wouldn’t bother my mom while she was at work, but I thought maybe it would be best to let her know what I was doing in case I wasn’t back before she came home. I wasn’t very skilled at texting because the only time I ever texted was when I had to relay something to Mom while she was at work. It took several minutes for me to punch out ‘going to the mall with Cindy, see you sometime later today. I’ll have my phone with me. Love you.’ I omitted Brandon’s name so she wouldn’t be confused. After all, I had not told her about my new friends yet.
I did a quick look in the mirror. The facial abrasion was healing well, but the scabbed over parts looked disgusting. It was shrinking in size, kind of puckered around the edges, but it didn’t hurt. I brushed my hair and decided to throw it in a ponytail. I looked my outfit over, and felt that if it was good enough to visit Janet in, then it was good enough to shop in. I was wearing khaki pants and a white shirt. I would have to get out the lint roller to get Hershey hairs off my clothes, and then I would be all set to go.
I lifted my mattress and pulled thirty dollars out from my stash of savings. I had nothing in particular that I was saving for, and spending thirty wouldn’t hurt anything even if I was, so I just tucked the money into my front pocket and let the mattress down.
My doorbell rang. It was Cindy. “Hey, Brandon called and he’s on his way to pick us up. I told him I’d wait here with you. Is that okay?” she asked.
“Yes, yes, please come in.” I closed the door behind her and led her into the living room where Hershey was reclining in his patch of sun.
“Aw, he’s so darn cute,” Cindy said as she squatted to pet Hershey.
“He had a big day today, we did our first visitation.”
I told her about the morning, leaving out who the woman was that we visited and focused only on how well we handled it because Janet deserved her privacy.
“I was so nervous at first, but once we entered the room, something else took over. Jane said it was compassion that took over. I don’t know how to explain it, but all my anxiety washed away the moment we walked through the door.”
“That is exactly what happens to me when I’m at the food pantry. So many people our age would not get it, they are too wrapped up in themselves.” Cindy said. “Ellen, what you are doing is very cool. I think it’s amazing that people can use their pets to bring joy to others. You have worked pretty hard at this and it shows. I’m proud of you.”
That made me smile; she said she was proud of me. Cindy really was a good friend. The regret I should have felt for turning away from her was never able to surface because she harbored no ill feelings towards me. Our friendship seemed to pick up where it left off.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, and I went to my desk to get a trading card for her.
“Oh, my gosh, this is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!” she said. “Hershey, you have your own card!” Hershey looked at her with his head cocked to the side, and then he stood up to stretch out his legs and rubbed his cheeks against her knees. She gave his head a stroke then stood up when we heard a car horn blow outside.
“Brandon’s here,” she said, “are you ready to go?”
“Yes, I am,” I said.
“But, where’s your purse?” she asked.
I didn’t have a purse; I’d never needed one before.
“I don’t have one Cindy, but I have money in my pocket.” She looked surprised, yet not surprised, at the same time.
“Okay, then let’s hit the mall!” she said.
The ride to the mall was fun but very loud. Brandon loved to crank his stereo to the max! My ears were still ringing when we walked through the entrance, and then I was hit with what was to me the signature scent of the mall, cinnamon rolls! Immediately my mouth started to water. Whenever Mom and I came here shopping, I would smell the cinnamon rolls and wish I could have one, but we never went to the food court. I was hoping that today, my friends and I would sit in the food court and I would get myself one of those sinful rolls.
We did a lot of window shopping, stopping to look at outfits on mannequins and commenting on whether we’d be caught dead in them or not. Brandon had a shoe fetish. We had to go into every shoe store and look at all the gym shoes. He tried on a pair that cost $120, and I could not get over the price. What would make someone pay that much money for a pair of shoes?
“I’m going to buy these with my first paycheck.” he declared.
“That’s great, Brandon, but first you need a job,” Cindy joked.
“Ha, ha,” he joked back.
We walked past a drug store and I stopped in front of it. Brandon and Cindy kept walking, but turned to look back at me when I didn’t respond to something they said.
“What’s up, Ellen?” Cindy asked.
“Cindy, do you think you could help me pick out some makeup?”
I had decided it was about time I tried wearing makeup. Perhaps I should invest in a purse as well!
“Sure!” Cindy seemed excited at the idea, but Brandon groaned.
“That’s my cue! I’ll meet you guys later. I’m going to look at the shoes at Foot Locker,” he said as he walked off.
Cindy ushered me straight to the makeup aisles. She studied my face for a moment, and started to pull items off the rack.
“Purple hues would look great with your dark hair and brown eyes,” she said. “And your skin is so flawless that you don’t need any cover up. I would suggest an eye liner, mascara, and some eye shadow.” I tallied up the prices in my head, darn near $20 for makeup! Are you kidding me?
She suggested I buy a tweezers and said she would show me how to pluck my eyebrows to enhance my eyes. She also grabbed a bottle of pale pink nail polish. “I think nails painted a subtle color look best,” she said.
I went with her suggestions and we headed for the checkout line. We giggled like little girls at the outrageous rag magazine headlines. I was so content and having such a great time that I didn’t pay attention to who was around, but as the line got shorter and we got closer to the clerk, I realized what a mistake I had made. Darcel was the checkout clerk.
“Um, Cindy, let’s put this stuff back and I’ll go somewhere else at another time to get it,” I said, trying to escape the inevitable.
“What? No! Why?” she asked before she saw Darcel. When she saw her, a look of awareness crossed her face.
“Oh, I see,” she said, and she leaned close to me. “Didn’t you just stand up to her last week? If I’m not mistaken, you told her she had just started world war three.” She was right; I did do all of that. But that was during a moment of inner strength that I did not have anymore.
“Ellen, she is at work, and she would lose her job if she did anything to offend a customer.” She winked at me. “You could really mess with her right now.”
Despite how cowardly I felt, I remained in line until we were next.
“Did you find everything okay?” Darcel asked without even looking up. She didn’t seem to really want to be at work, she looked bored and uninterested.
“Yes we did,” Cindy blurted in reply, and the sound of her voice made Darcel look up. The shock on her face was priceless. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. She looked from Cindy to me, and then began scanning my items while an angry red blush came over her cheeks. After she totaled my items, she had the nerve to snidely ask me, “Would you like a candy bar today?”
Maybe it was her job to push products on customers, maybe it was a remark aimed at me specifically. I wasn’t sure which it was. All I was sure of was that I had declared war and I had to follow through with my threat.
“No, thank you. Chocolate gives you pimples, but I’m sure you already know that,” I said.
Darcel blushed even deeper and heatedly announced my total. Knowing I had won this round, I grinned and handed over the money. Once she gave me my change, I told her, “Have a nice day.” She ignored me.
Cindy was laughing like a banshee as we exited the store. “That was awesome, Ellen!” she said, but inside I felt guilty. I wasn’t proud of what I had done. I kind of wanted to go back in and apologize, but I couldn’t. Cindy thought it was hysterical. When we met up with Brandon, she told him what had happened and he high-fived me.