At Stacey’s house, I have to relive the scarf thing all over again
when Stacey tells her mom.
“I don’t think that girl meant anything by it,”
Mrs. LaVoie says. “I think you read
too much into it.”
“Mother, you should have heard her,
and she practically grabbed Mimi’s pocketbook.”
“But who would ever think Mimi,
of all people,
would shoplift?”
Maybe Stacey’s mother can’t imagine
anyone thinking that way about her,
or she doesn’t want to think anyone she knows
would shoplift.
Or she feels bad about how she acted
before she met Mama.
All at once, I understand
why Stacey keeps telling the story,
why she can’t let it go,
and why her mother is making excuses for that salesgirl:
They’re embarrassed.
They’ve never had anyone like me or my family so close.
And this is a whole new world for them,
with all new rules.
All at once, I’m not mad or sad
or embarrassed anymore.
Instead, I hug Stacey and then her mom
and pardon them
for their confusion
about everything, because,
just like me, they are learning
how to take
one small step.