The next night and morning were quiet, uneventful. Mavis came into the kitchen while Marianne was still drinking her morning coffee.
She gave Marianne a twenty-dollar bill. “It’s from Rex. He wanted you to have a little treat. He’s basically a good man.” She told her she could walk to the store and buy anything she wanted for dinner.
After she was dressed in her pink uniform with her pink bow in her hair, and gone off to work, Marianne went into her bedroom. She made the bed and sorted through her laundry. In the laundry room the hamper was full. Marianne loaded the machine. After the sheets were washed and folded, Marianne changed into her Tee shirt and a pair of peddle-pushers. She went into the bathroom and examined the cosmetics. Then she examined herself. Her hair was short and shaggy, too short to do anything with. She opened some brown eye shadow and smeared some on her upper lids. She lengthened her lashes with some mascara and applied a dark red lipstick. Then she stood back to look at herself. She looked older. At least as old as her twenty-one years.
Through the window she saw Leon’s white convertible swing around in a U-turn and disappear down the street. She sprayed some of Mavis’ cologne around her head, grabbed her purse and went next door to Mrs. Fultz’s and pushed the doorbell.
“The door is open,” she called out. She was lying on the sofa, knitting. The needles stopped. Her legs were stretched out in front of her. They were pasty white, while huge swollen purple varicose veins twined around them and snaked downward. Her feet were swollen, the toenails painted the same purplish red of her fingernails.
“Do they know you’ve come here?” She asked.
“Dr. Woodall says that if I had a grandmother, I could visit her now. He said I can go to the store by myself now.”
“I should think so. I liked your Dr. Woodall better than I expected to, but I don’t like snoopers. He pretended he had to use the phone just so he could look around.” Her knitting needles clicked rapidly. “I suppose it is his job though.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t hear the doorbell. I was taking a nap.”
“Leon was upset because you wouldn’t talk to him. He cares about you, Marianne. We all care about you.”
Marianne was sure her face was red. Quickly changing the subject, she said: “I came to see if I could bring you anything from the store?”
Mrs. Fultz sighed and the knitting needles flew. “Thank you, sweetheart. I appreciate the thought. Leon just left the house not five minutes ago for the Sack N Save. If you look for him, he will give you a lift home with your bags.”
She walked rapidly right past the Sack N Save. She didn’t see the white convertible in the parking lot. She entered the store and walked around, just looking at all the things on the shelves. A clerk that was stocking things on the shelves smiled at her. She smiled back and went to the cosmetics section. She stood a long time studying the colors. When the clerk moved to the next aisle, she picked out a red lipstick and carried it in the palm of her hand. She walked to the fruit and vegetable section and pulled three bananas from a bunch. She put the lipstick into her pocket. She walked around and picked up some hot dogs and buns, then walked to the candy section. A small boy was touching all the chocolate bars. He left suddenly, very fast. He did not go through the line at the cash register. She watched him disappear, running through the parking lot.
“Will that be everything today?” The girl at the register asked. Marianne was glad that it wasn’t anyone that knew her. She put down the twenty dollar bill and the girl gave her the change and bagged her groceries. She went outside and when she put her hand in her pocket she was surprised to find the lipstick there. She had forgotten about it. She knew she had done wrong, an unintended, silly wrong, but wrong never the less. Oh God! I could go back to prison for a silly mistake like this! Would they believe that she just forgotten about that lipstick? All those things were just laying out in the open, like they intentionally put things there for people to take them. That little boy had certainly taken candy bars. Someone called her name. She was sure it was someone from the store! Someone who knew her. Someone who knew she had taken that lipstick! She wanted to run, like the little boy had done. A car stopped beside her. It was the white convertible. Leon leaned across and opened the car door. “Hop in, Marianne. I’ll give you a lift.” She was so relieved that it hadn’t been someone from the store that she smiled and jumped in, her heart beating so loud she was afraid Leon would hear it.
Several years earlier some bureaucrats had decided that to make the main street S shaped would slow down traffic, make people have the time to look in shop windows and create more business in the downtown area. And it had for a short time, but one by one each business had moved out anyway. Even though it was a large car, the convertible floated easily down the street, making the curves through the snake easily enough. Leon didn’t drive fast and he didn’t go straight home. The car seat was soft and deep and very wide. She was far away from Leon.
She had to get rid of that lipstick! Behind the groceries in her lap, she took it out of her pocket and casually dropped it out of the window.