THE SUN WAS SHINING THAT MORNING AND THE AIR WAS COLD and the foothills were dusted with snow. The white mountains to the east were stark against the blue sky like a diamond in a dark ear. Dani suggested they go shopping. Get Ruby some new clothes.
Shopping?
For clothes, Dani said. How’s that sound to you?
They drove to the department store and they walked in together and started looking at the clothes on the metal circular racks.
What do you think about this?
Ruby held up a dress.
Dani shrugged.
Okay, Ruby said. How about these?
It was a pair of Levi’s.
Dani shrugged again. You like them? she asked.
Yes, Ruby said.
Then that’s all that matters.
Maybe I’ll try them on first.
They got the key from the attendant. A bored-looking teenager reading a gossip magazine. She said, while blowing a bubble: Only five items at a time.
I only got six, Ruby said.
Only five.
Dani grabbed the dress from the collection and set the rest on the counter.
Five, she told the attendant.
The girl went back to her magazine.
In the dressing room Ruby tried everything on like royalty. She turned at the mirror. Dani sat in a chair just outside the door and from time to time asked her how it was going in there. There was an old Vogue magazine in the rack beside her chair and Dani picked that up and flipped through the pages, and lost in all those glossy images she never even saw him come into the store.