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A girl from church, Winnie Vice, entered the toy aisle from the other end with her toddler in the cart Winnie was a Crystal or Brenda relative, she couldn’t remember which That was another snafu at church: now that Crystal’s kids were blackballed froet about sneaking in there for quiet time--the place was bedla up behind Crystal, hanging out together while their young were trained by Jazon and Mical in the art of using the juice ation was definitely dividing into pro-Crystal or pro-Brenda factions, and it was hard to guess what ht compromise your neutrality Winnie hadn’t seen her, so she could ot out of the toy aisle Still toyless Dellarobia grabbed a horribly made plush raccoon that didn’t even look like a raccoon, and threw it in her cart because it only cost a dollar She wanted to punch somebody out The worldsensible to buy She loaded up on two-dollar boxes offor those with fewer redients Down the aisle she spied Cub standing near the coffee, and there was Crystal Estep, good night With her boys nowhere in evidence, Crystal was all sainst her cart in a backward tilt that threw her pelvis forward like a kindergartner doing stretching exercises Crystal spotted Dellarobia, waved at her, and shoved off, leaving Cub to peruse the coffee Dellarobia steered toward her husband, vowing to try and be sweet, but of course he picked up the can of Folgers "Put it back, Cub," she said "Get the store brand"

"I thought we liked the Folgers"

"Six dollars The store brand is one seventy-five Which one do we like?"

They arrived together at the Last Chance section at the end of the aisle, ridiculously low-priced iteot a canister of lemonade mix and some fruit cocktail Who knew canned fruit could expire?

"How’s Miss Crystal?" she asked

"Motormouth, like always," Cub said "Sohed "That’s not nice"

"She says she wants you to look at her letter she’s writing to Dear Abby"

"Oh, for crying out loud Again? You should see that thing, it’s like twenty pages long She ought to apply so her GED"

Dellarobia was amazed to see ound up in the Last Chance section, not just food but also strange hair products and such Packs of guht mind would buy expired condoms? she wondered It seeain Cub naturally went for the hot-fudge-sundae toaster pastries, which she wanted to snatch fro belly But she decided not to add Cub’s weight issues into today’s fun lineup If she could pretend ice-creaht overlook the less advantageous aspects of lung cancer

"Hey, buddy! Who’s this pretty little lady?" A tall, narrow man in a raincoat and old-fashioned fedora reached across their shopping cart, evil swan and all, to shake Cub’s hand Cub introduced her to Greg, his supervisor at the gravel co winked at her "Is it ti an ark?"

Ha-ha-ha-ha Dellarobia was ready for her world to get some new material Cub chatted with him about how busy they’d been at work She wondered why the boss would be shopping at the dollar store Sometiement, wasn’t therearound long enough to see on Cub caught up to her in the dog food aisle

"Mother and Dad feed the dogs," he said