Moose and Goose

Chapter Fifty

After leaving the laundromat, Ja'liyah followed Judith around the mall, and they sampled each restaurant's food on toothpicks. Eventually, they reached a store filled with window shoppers under the bright lights.

"See, Montgomery and Mobile don't have fine places like this," Ja'liyah says, stopping in front of a store no bigger than a bodega. She looks through the transparent window at the shelves and displays of luxury bags and flashy jewelry.

"Trust me, it's not as nice as it seems," Judith says before following her gaze to the mass of people polluting the small store. "The diamonds are just glass with layers of clear polish."

"Yeah, well, the girls back home won't know the difference; I want to bring back something that'll make them eat their hearts out." She pushes the door open and steps in with her cousin in tow. They look around the window shoppers, squeezing through them until they reach the middle. "See, that's flashy!"

She points to a thick handbag with a thin strap and crescent moon shape. She steps toward it while excitedly biting her lip, and Judy follows her.

"I've always wanted this," Ja'liyah says, and she folds her arms to avoid touching it. "This is Jackie Kennedy's Gucci purse. I saw her toting it years ago on T.V, and I just had to have it."

"Um, well, again, it's fake like everything else in here." She shoots Judith a dark look, her smile disappearing. "And I don't have the money for something like this."

"How old do you fucking think I am," she whisper-yells her question, and Judith blinks back from surprise. Ja'liyah shakes her head then says, "I make my own money, and I came this way from Alabama with more than enough to put more quarters in your machine, but I'm sure you forgot that."

"I didn't mean it like that," Judith struggles to assure her cousin. Her eyes are wide, and her lips are agape with a high level of fear that doesn't match the minor interaction.

"Uh-huh, right. Excuse me!" Judy flinches and clutches her laundry bag tighter when Ja'liyah yells for a sales representative.

Jesus Christ!

Judith looks around the room of people but only catches the eye of a few whose hostile glares cause her to lower her head.

A woman with a dancer's body sees her cousin waving her over from the left end of the room. She's standing with an elderly couple, and the smile she put on for them fades when Ja'liyah yells again.

"Excuse me!" Judith darts her worried eyes between her cousin and the worker who hasn't budged from her spot. Judy opens her mouth to speak, and Ja'liyah scoffs, shaking her head in disbelief. "Lady, I called you like five times, and all these people in here can see you being rude to a paying customer!"

She's probably ignoring you because not only are you yelling but you're dressed like you can't afford it.

The pitch of her voice grows shrill as she forces herself to continue without stopping for a breath, and her face turns red.

"Liyah, maybe we should go check on my stuff." The woman gently backhands her strawberry blonde feathered hair behind her left shoulder as she rolls her blue eyes onto the pair before her.

"Unbelievable," she mumbles and scoffs, folding her arms. Judith looks toward the window overlooking the rest of the shopping plaza.

David and Mary are standing in front of a busy kiosk. She has her hands in the seat pockets of her floral-stitched jeans, and his hands are tight around the bars on his crutches.

Is that...?

"Forget it; let's jet." Judith blinks out of her daze when her cousin walks across her line of sight. She hurries behind her and out of the store, instantly stricken by a wave of heat. "I don't even know why I bothered going in there. I mean, I know white people in South Carolina are racist as shit, but damn, did I not expect them to be on a whole 'nother level with the ones in Alabama."