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“What’s fu
“Nothing, honey.” Absolutely nothing anymore.
This trip to the store was going to be extra challenging.
It was a Saturday, when the store was usually the most crowded.
Valentine Crosby worked on this day, at this hour.
Until now A
WHEN ANNABELLE and Jody walked into George’s Fresh Food & Deli, a rolling silence fell over the store, starting with the first people to see them up front. Then the woman closest to them smiled, someone else gave them a little wave, and business went on as usual-except for the feeling A
The smell of cooking food nearly gagged A
She swallowed hard to keep from throwing up.
This time she was going to attempt to walk up to the meat counter where the bloody fresh cuts were and ask for a whole fryer. The smell and the sight of blood had kept her away from the back of the store before now, but she was determined to change that on this trip.
“George” wasn’t a man’s first name, but rather the last name of the couple who owned the store. Livia George, the wife, came hurrying up, smiling too brightly. “Hello, A
Jody grabbed A
A
“No,” Jody said, edging partly behind her grandmother. A
The store owner bent down closer to Jody. “It’s choc-o-late!”
“Another time,” A
When they got a grocery cart, Jody held onto both of them, grandmother and cart.
With slow progress they managed to pick up fresh fruit and vegetables, cereal, milk, and other staples that A
Fresh chicken wasn’t actually her main goal today.
Even when she successfully took it wrapped from Byron George’s hands, she felt no accomplishment yet.
Her main reason for coming waited at one of the front checkout counters.
When she reached the two counters, she saw there were ten people waiting for one of them, and only one customer standing across the moving belt from Val Crosby. A
When it was A
“Hello, Valentine.”
The girl flinched when she saw who it was. She looked wretched. She had already been thin-scrawny, as A
Byron George came hurrying up and said, “A
She shook her head. “This will be fine, Byron.”
A
A
The girl’s eyes filled and her lips trembled.
A
She turned to look at Valentine Crosby again. “I think we’ve got everything we came for, if you want to check us out now, Val.”
She squeezed the pale, trembling hand and released it.
Val hurried to do her job, taking in an audible breath as she picked up the first item. She could barely ring them on the cash register. She dropped things, which A
“I’ll call you in a few days, Valentine,” A
A
But she couldn’t help it. Getting the words out at all was a victory.
She had wept while rehearsing them with Hugh Senior.
He had encouraged her, coached her, cried with her.
They’d heard of mea
Valentine broke down and began to cry.
Seeing her, A
The two women-wife of a convict, mother of a victim-leaned toward each other over the milk and cereal and embraced. A
Valentine whispered back, sobbing, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Mrs. Linder, I’m so so sorry,” while they held onto each other for dear life.
It was then that A
A
Though she knew it was absurd, she panicked. “Jody!”
And then she heard it: a little girl’s giggle. It was the most beautiful noise she’d heard in weeks, and her eyes welled up with tears again at the precious sound of it. She looked in that direction and spotted Jody standing in a corner of the store beside a card table where a boy was showing her something in a book. Jody pointed to a page and they both giggled.