"Watch where you're going," she said, edging her cart to one side of the aisle, nearly running over Kitty's foot in the process. She turned her back to inspect a row of hair products.
"Sorry," Kitty murmured again. She loitered, pretending to survey whatever was on the shelves in front of her, biding her time until the exit was clear. One ... two ... three...
After counting to thirty, she strode forward at the same moment that Pearl pushed her cart ahead. The metal wheels caught Kitty's bare heel and she yelped, spinning. Her elbow swept some items off the shelves, and they hit the floor with a thwack. Sighing, Kitty knelt to retrieve them. Without a word, Pearl sailed by, her gaze trained on the grocery list in her hand.
As the other woman's cart passed, Kitty noticed the eggs on the bottom, the bonus box of condoms next to them, the roll of paper towels on top of that. And on top of that, an expensive bottle of hair tonic - guaranteed to cure female baldness. Kitty looked down at one of the items she'd knocked to the floor. The exact same bottle.
"Pearl..."
The other woman ignored her and turned the corner. The last thing Kitty saw was the baldness tonic, which she'd accidentally but most certainly knocked into the cart, sliding down the plastic-wrapped paper towels to disappear beneath the shampoo that Pearl had probably just ticked off her itemized list.
Okay, lately Pearl's treatment of Kitty had been lousy, but in a small town the contents of your grocery cart were as closely scrutinized as the new color you were painting your house or the new perm you received at Locks, Stocks, and Barrels. To avoid such intense surveillance during Kitty's high school years, the other girls had driven to the bigger stores in the next town to buy things their moms would disapprove of.
Or they'd asked Kitty, with no reputation to lose, to make the purchases at Kemper's for them.
Squaring her shoulders, Kitty followed Pearl, prepared to confess in order to spare the older woman embarrassment at the checkout counter. The next aisle over was empty and she strode to the end of it quickly. Standing by a display of diapers and baby wipes, she looked to the right. Nothing. Then to the left.
Oh, holy havoc, Batman. Standing in the store's back corner, where the cases of soft drinks were stacked, was Samantha.
And Pearl's husband, Red Morton.
The two were close together, talking, and they might have been at it for some time, because the only items in Samantha's cart so far were a box of saltine crackers and what looked like raspberry leaf tea. Kitty swallowed. She had to waylay Pearl before she caught sight of Samantha and Red.
Doubling back, she cringed to find the woman in question heading purposefully down the aisle. If Pearl made it to the diapers and baby wipes, she'd be certain to see the pair. Kitty girded her loins. "Uh, Pearl," she said, blocking the woman's cart.
"What?" she answered impatiently.
The condoms and the baldness tonic in Pearl's cart, though unseen, seemed to Kitty to glow like radioactive material. "Uh - well - " she stammered, trying to think of a delicate way to bring up the items.
"I don't have time for this." Pearl changed course, pushing her cart around Kitty, though a back wheel managed to crunch over her little toe.
Silenced by the pain, Kitty hopped on one foot after her. As Pearl reached the end of the aisle, Kitty caught her shoulder, causing Pearl to bump the corner of the cart into the rows of shelving. The older woman turned, and behind her back, Kitty saw something teeter on the topmost shelf and then topple into the cart. Still gasping from the pain in her toe, Kitty, flamingo-legged, just pointed.
With an impatient sigh, Pearl turned around. "Oh, thank you," she said ungraciously, adjusting her accordion file of coupons that were threatening to spill from the cart's child's seat, where they'd been placed. Then Pearl accelerated her pace, turning right without ever glancing to her left.
Momentarily relieved that Samantha and Red remained undetected, Kitty hopped forward. She gazed up at the shelf to ascertain what type of product had fallen into Pearl's cart this time. Her relief turned to horrified resignation. Oh, heck. It was a purse-pack of bladder control pads.
More determined than ever to track the cafe owner down, Kitty took a breath and limped forward. Glancing to the left, she saw Red and