The bottom of Ket's shoes scraped along the cement as he padded alongside Emeral.
Gone was the formerly encroaching smell of sea-salt and -weed. Away with the ever-present grains of sand and endless flatland from side to side. Mute was the constant shush of the ocean, ebbing and surging upon the shore.
In their places were things that were not better, nor any worse. Replacing the smell of the sea was the smell of gas and diesel. Sand was transformed into cement and asphalt. Endless, flat land was now endless rows of buildings and streets. The rush of the ocean was replaced by the rush of cars speeding by as the walkers carried on to their next destination.
The town was still wet. That was for sure. Scattered about the streets and sidewalks, in recessed ground and corners and nooks and dips, were puddles and rivulets and motionless streams of green or brown or red or black or just plain ick.
The air was still humid, too. In the distance, heat-waves rippled across the ground like a herd of cattle running across the horizon, kicking up dust in its wake. Water droplets formed upon the whiskers of the walkers almost like sweat formed on their brows.
And yet, Ket found some enjoyment in all this. Sure it wasn't quite as thrilling as standing boldly in front of a wave three times his height and a million times his mass and more force power than Darth Vader, but the activity had something about it that was just "easy."
If his head gave him any trouble it was minor at worst. There was the occasional pang of an ache if he would turn it to look at something and forget that oh yeah, there's a lump on his skull.
For the first part of the day he got some odd looks from people. Emeral noticed it right away, and in one of the shops she came across some floppy hats. She convinced their parents to get them one each as a souvenir: a red one for her, and a green one for him. She would have preferred a blue for his head, but the only other color option was yellow.
The hat was actually not as much of a bother as he thought it would have been. In fact, it was kind of therapeutic. The pressure on the bump, while a little painful, kind of worked the hurt out. Not to mention it kept the sun off his scalp.
They had started off slow, this "shopping spree" of theirs. They didn't really buy much, just browsed. It wasn't too hard to find the kind of off-the-beaten-path stores they were looking for. They even started getting systematic about it. They would drive to a shopping center and just walk around, from place to place, looking for signs.
Momma R. was particularly good at finding all the knick-knack places. All day she guided them like a bloodhound to the clue that closed the case. From a store that had seashell scenes like something out of Polly Pocket, to a little kiosk on the side of the road where an artist drew quick caricatures of his customers.
The man was polite enough to draw Ket's caricature without the egg incubating on the back of his skull.
As good as Momma R. was at knick-knack shops, Emeral was probably better at food shops. The moms joked and teased her about it. It started off innocently enough, "Hey, can we check out that place over there?"
A candy house.
"This place has a panda on the window..."
A "Strange Asian Quisine" shop.
"That place has a funny-looking striped roof..."
A cookie-cake shop.
Just about any place she pointed out had something to do with food. So it was only natural she pointed out a seafood restaurant that was fairly inexpensive and overtly got their patrons addicted to their delicious hushpuppies.
"You look bored." Emeral said, for the unteenth time that day.
"I'm fine," Ket replied, for the unteenth-and-a-dozenth.
She had been close to him all day. They had been side-by-side for so long that they could be mistaken for conjoined twins. In some ways that was nice; he liked just being around her in a way that wasn't so "boyfriend-girlfriend". With their mothers around they acted more like they had at the beginning of the year—for the most part.
Emeral was still throwing those little acts when she could. Squeezes of the hand, twining their fingers, tapping his shoes. It was an onslaught, like she was worried he'd forgotten they were a couple. It was almost verging to the point of annoying...
"Okay!" Momma B. said huffing. "I've tried to hold out for as long as I could guys, but..." She pulled her hands up gave in; "I have to go a clothing store, please?" She begged.
"Well gee mommy," Emeral giggled. "Since you've been such a good little girl..."
"Actually," Momma R. said, "Now that she mentions it I kinda want to shop for an outfit, too..."
"Give in to the dark side, my child," Momma B. said waving her arms in front of her toward her daughter. "You want to go, too. Search your feelings, you know it to be true."
Emeral immediately looked at Ket.
He shrugged.
She sighed. "All right. We'll go to a clothing store."
Her mom obviously had it in mind at this particular shopping center. Like a bear to the honey-factory she charged forward, Momma R. and kids huffing to keep up.
"Slow down mom! Ket can't run; his head, remember?"
"Oh," Momma B. slowed to a brisk walk. "Sorry Ket."
"No problem..." He replied, shifting his eyes at Emeral. "It wouldn't have really bothered me..."
At the brisk walk they passed by half a dozen stores to get to where Momma B. wanted to go. A juice shop that smelled like oranges and limes, juxtaposed to a coffee shop that smelled... well, like coffee. A used bookstore that was very dimly lit on the inside. A computer store that looked like nothing but white and green and blue, all sterile. A music store with CDs playing rock music, and a pet-supply store that voiced a flock of birds.
As they approached the desired store, and stepped through the pressure-operated automatic doors, Ket saw just how big the place was. He was beginning to wonder if this was such a good idea.
"Regretting already?"
"Huh?" He glanced to his left. Emeral smiled at him.
"Can't hide it from me," she whispered. "I know what's going on in that head."
He shook it, hoping that would stir everything around. "It's fine, I was getting tired of looking at stuff anyway."
They passed several racks of clothes as the two moms discussed where they should start. Ket looked about idly, not really paying attention to what he was looking at. He noted that there were men's clothes, too. And a kid's section. The store also had—
"Shoes!" Momma R. exclaimed. "Kid, you're coming with me."
"Ack!" Ket's free hand was suddenly nabbed and for a moment he was tugged between his mom and Emmy. The latter let go of her hold on him and he was tugged away, forced to follow his mother into the depths of the shoe department.
"Well...there he goes." Momma B. said. She looked down at her daughter. "You gonna miss him?"
"A little." Was Emeral's response. She looked up at her mother and smiled.
"You two have been practically glued to each other this whole time," the mother tigress commented, leading her daughter into the aisle of clothes as she idly looked at different blouses.
"Does that...mean anything?" Emeral asked. She tried not to sound agitated, but her fur was beginning to stiffen.
"Well, you're both only-children. It must be kind of stressful to share a tent and so much time together. We've actually been noticing you two... get into little tiffs lately."
"...Kinda." Emeral admitted. "We're still friends, though." She said, emphasizing the word.
"I know. But spend enough time with anybody and they'll start to drive you crazy." Momma B. pulled out a blouse she thought she might like, saw a flaw, and put it back. "Heck, your dad and I still get on each other's nerves and we're married. You'd think it'd never happen, but it does."
Emeral bit her lip. So maybe they didn't think anything more than she and Ket just being friends. "Really?" She asked, curious all the same. This conversation was sounding familiar to one she had just yesterday. "I've never seen you and dad fight..."
"That's because we've been careful." She explained. "Hold this?" She handed her daughter an orange top. "We didn't want to make you think we didn't like each other. Sometimes little bicker-fests just happen. I'm sure that after tomorrow, when you've been alone for a little bit, you'll want to spend time with him again and it'll be like nothing ever happened."
Emeral smiled. "Maybe. I think he needs the break more than me. Too much estrogen around him. Plus his goose-egg."
Her mom chuckled. "Aren't those basically the same problems?"
They shared a laugh.
"Hey mom?"
"What, hun?"
"Can I..." Emeral looked to the next aisle over. "Can I pick out a dress?"
The mother tigress glanced down at her daughter in mock shock. "You? A dress? Did you get Ket's goose-egg?"
Emeral giggled. "No...I have sundresses..."
"Oh really? I wouldn't know," she picked out another blouse and held onto it herself. "You've never worn the darn things."
"Cuz...I didn't want to at the time. Now they're too little. But...I wanna try a dress. Who knows maybe I'll—" she play-gasped, "Like it."
The mother glanced at her daughter again, and this time smiled. "Well, I guess I can't scold you for wanting to be a lady. Let me just pick out a couple pairs of pants and we'll go look for something."
* * *
"Didn't Emmy... say something... about me not being able to run?" Ket panted after being mostly dragged to the shoe section.
"Oh... I guess I forgot." His mom shrugged. "You'll get over it. You're a boy."
"Gee thanks. Love you, too."
"See? You're back-talking already."
Ket straightened his hat. "Why'd you get so excited about shoes anyway?"
She started walking to the wall of boxes and began looking at the shoes on display. "Because, you need new shoes."
"But I like my shoes," he said, looking down at his feet.
His mom knelt down and picked up his left foot, and peeled the bottom of the heel away from the body. "Your shoes are falling apart. Plus they're like, two sizes too small. I dunno how you cwam yow widdle toewsies in dewr," she tickled the top of his shoes.
He scrunched his brow and his foot fell to the wood surface with a loud clop.
"I've been meaning to get you new shoes for a long time now," she explained, standing back up. "Now that we're not struggling so hard to make ends meet, there are a few things I can fix. Providing clean clothes for my child is one of them. Now, off vwith zee shooz."
"You sound like Mrs. Alatyrtsev," he commented, freeing his feet. She was right, how did his toes fit in them? He curled them, and all of them popped.
"That's an impressive talent. You should show that one to Emmy," she commented, looking at the tag to get his size. "Okay, come on kid."
"But, what if we get ones that turn out to not work for me? How do we return them all the way out here?"
She chuckled, pulling a box free. "Such a worry-wart. 'Gee mom? New shoes? Thanks so much!'" She proffered the box to him. "Hold this. Two hands, I'm going to give you more."
"Yes master," he droned, holding the box with both hands underneath. He followed his mother around as she looked at all the different shoes, occasionally pulling boxes off the racks. First one, then two... Soon five were in his care. He balanced them as best he could. Six...
"Uh, mom?"
"Hush dear, your mother is in a hapless trance."
He took another few steps. The six boxes swayed. For shoes, these were getting to be heavy. A bead of sweat trickled down his temple as she yoinked a seventh box and plopped it on his stack. She went to the farther wall.
He took a step. The box wiggled. It was a whole head above him, and started to lean backward. He hastily back-stepped, trying to counterbalance it. He could almost hear the tower of boxes groan like steel warping under the weight of a skyscraper.
"Just one more," his mom said, gently placing an eighth box onto the stack.
An eighth box too many. The shoes inside must have been shoved to one side. The tower immediately went too far forward and Ket tried to take four fast steps to scoot it over. "Mom help!" He managed to say, before the top four boxes tumbled all over him.
Momma R. turned to see her son standing amidst a pile of disarray; his cap was lodged to the left side of his head and some of the packing paper was still drifting down. "Um...maybe one too many boxes?" She asked innocently.
He walked the other half of the boxes still in his arms over to one of the sitting stools and then went to help his mother collect the fallen shoes. "Why'd you get so many?" He asked.
"Guess I just got carried away," she smiled. "It's just been a while since..." She looked at him, a twinkle of admiration in her eye.
"Since?"
"Since you had a new pair of shoes," she stated, lifting up two of the boxes toward their stack. "Sit." She ordered.
Ket sat upon the bench, his socked feet scratching one another. "Am I gonna hafta try them all on?" He questioned, a thread of dread in his voice.
"No, I won't make you do that," she responded, pulling out the first pair of shoes. "But try these on to make sure this is the right size."
Quietly he slipped the shoes on and tied them. They were black shoes with gray laces. A matching gray N was on both sides of each shoe. That N was on all the other boxes, he noticed.
"Good fit?"
"I dunno," he responded.
She pinched the toes of his shoe. "Well, do they feel comfy, too tight or too loose? Wiggle your toes."
"They feel comfy I guess," he said, and wiggled. Compared to his old shoes, the toe-room felt kind of weird.
"We'll go with this size for now, and then when we find the pair you like we'll see which size fits best." She reached for another box. "Okay, so those are black-and-gray, these are white-and-gray."
"...What's the difference?" He asked.
His mother gave him a quizzical look. "The colors, silly. You hit your head or somethin'?" She chuckled. "You're a big boy. I want to know what shoes you want."
He looked at the two different shoes. "I guess...white?"
"Okay but, keep in mind that white can look really dingy after a while."
"Okay... then black."
"But black is so boring, don't you wanna look cool?" She could see the twitch in his left eyebrow. "I'm just kidding, hun." She set the box down and pulled up another one. "These are...kinda gray, but they have dark green and dark gray on them too."
Still not really into the whole picking mood, Ket decided to just play along. "I guess those are more interesting."
"Yeah but," she held the shoe up to his shin, comparing it with his fur color. "I don't think this color matches too well."
"Does that really matter?" He asked, pulling off the black-and-gray shoes.
"Well, you want to look nice don't you?"
It made sense. "Yeah." But at the same time this was getting really boring really fast. Thankfully, his mom must have thought the same thing.
She opened up more of the boxes and just asked him if any of them stood out. When he picked the blue-and-silver ones, she put the others aside and opened the last two boxes. She closed them when he said he definitely did not like black-and-red nor black-and-white.
So it was down to the blue-and-silver, black-and-gray, and white-and-gray. Copying his mother, and acquiring a more serious interest in the matter, he held the shoes up to his shin. The neutral shoes went well enough, but the blue-and-silver stood out just a little bit more.
"So, these are the ones, huh?"
"Yeah...is that bad?"
"Huh? No. I think they look perfect. Let me just get a size bigger and a size smaller and we'll see which fits you best."
He sat while his mother went back to the wall. Another kid and his mother came by. The little squirrel boy gave Ket an odd look, like he was begging to be saved from this horrible experience.
Momma R. returned with three boxes, one more than she promised. The third box, a half-size bigger, was a little loose but Ket reasoned he'd grow into them. Even still, she made him try all of them on and wiggle his toes for her and walk up and down the aisle. The walking part was kind of odd because they shoes were attached together by a bungee-string.
"Final decision?" She asked.
He placed his hand on the half-size bigger, blue-and-silver box. He hesitated a moment, looking at the other open boxes, quickly comparing all the colors. "Yup," he finally resolved.
Good-habited people that they were, they replaced all of the boxes that Momma R. had pulled from the walls and, making doubly sure they didn't accidentally put the ones he wanted away, Ket carried his selected shoes while they went to meet back with the Brillians.
