That Blue Gibson: Another Round

two

"Lizbeth?"

She didn't look up from the massive shelf full of spices in front of her, just slightly tilted her head. "Yeah, Phee?"

"I haveta go potty."

"Okay," Liz moved to stand from her crouch, but Violet stepped up.

"I'll take her," she offered and tossed a bag of marshmallows over her shoulder and into their cart where Harper dodged it.

"Thanks," Liz sighed. The list of spices Dave had asked her to scrounge up had been more intimidating than she had expected and she and the girls were on their third grocery store in search of some mystical and very specific brand of cayenne pepper. "Keep your phone close, please."

"Yeah, yeah," Violet good-naturedly rolled her eyes and led Phee away while Liz enlisted Harper's help in searching for the stupid spice on her phone.

"Am I reading it wrong, Harps?" she held Dave's list out to her as she sat in the big part of the cart, hoping his daughter could decipher his handwriting better than her, but she just shook her head.

"No, you've got the name right. Maybe my mom knows?"

"Oh! Good idea! Call her!"

She went back to searching the shelves as Harper talked to Jordyn and had possibly found an acceptable substitute when she heard a little sniffle over her shoulder.

"Liz?"

Her heart hit the linoleum when she heard Phee's tear-soaked voice, feeling every bit of panic race up and down her spine as she ran to her. "What's wrong? What happened? Where's Violet?" Her fear only fueled Phee's sobbing and she threw herself at Liz, burying her face in her shoulder with a wail.

Before Liz even knew what she was doing, Phee was in her arms and she was about to set off in a dead sprint when Violet slowly walked around the corner at the end of the aisle with a sour look on her face. "Violet? What happened?"

"Oh, there's a guy at the front of the store trying to sell kittens," she explained with a distinct twinge of hatred. "He's a jerk."

"They're too little, Liz!" Phee wailed. "They need their mommy!"

"Okay, okay, take a deep breath." She mentally calculated how long they had been on their spice scavenger hunt and chided herself when she realized they had been out for four hours without so much as a snack. "Let's go get some lunch, okay? I'm sure we'll all feel much better once we've eaten."

"What about the cayenne?" Harper called from the cart, still on the phone with Jordyn.

"If your dad wants it so bad, he can go find it himself," Liz muttered and set Phee into the cart with her sister while waving for the phone. "You girls decide where you want to eat while I talk to your mom, okay?"

She followed the cart as Violet pushed her sisters towards the front of the store and chatted with Jordyn about drop off and pick up schedules for the upcoming school week. They were laughing about one particular mom that refused to follow the drop off line rules when the girls made it to the front of the store and Phee dove at her big sister to hide from the dirty man with the cardboard box sitting between the two glass doors. A pitiful chorus of mewls rose up from the box and Liz just couldn't resist looking inside.

"Your girls want a kitten, ma'am?" the man muttered, clearly drunk at eleven in the morning.

Liz didn't answer him, just narrowed her eyes at the three little kittens staggering around the box in an obvious search for their mother.

"Three kitties for three little girls!" he pushed. "I'll even throw in the mother for their pretty mama!"

Liz set Harper's phone higher on her ear, gave the man a tight smile then simply walked away with her arm firmly around Violet's shoulders. She ended her phone call with Jordyn as they reached the truck, then helped Phee into her car seat as the heavy silence hung over them. Once behind the wheel, she stuffed the key into the ignition, but couldn't bring herself to start it.