Please do not read if under 18 years of age or offended by sexually explicit stories and situations.
(c) 2003 Couture
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I watched my mother rub the fuzzy fabric between her fingers. Not looking at the cashmere sweater, just feeling it. Her eyes were directed elsewhere. At someone I didn't want them directed at.
"You want me to distract the saleslady?" I asked, trying to get her mind on her 'shopping'.
"No," she said, still looking out of the corner of her eye.
I knew who she was looking at without even turning my head. I had noticed the group of girls earlier, the way they looked around to see if anyone was watching, but not even noticing Mother or me . . . amateurs. They whispered to their small friend with glasses. They were trying to get her to take something. She was obviously scared, and didn't want to do it, but it was obvious her resolve was weakening. The worst part was, judging from the look of the other girls, they probably wouldn't even let her keep it.
"You want her?" mother asked.
"No thanks."
"Maybe I should take her then?"
"Mother. . ." I let it hang. She could be so exasperating sometimes - downright embarrassing.
Her nostrils flared. I looked over and watched the girl put a brightly colored blouse in an empty shopping bag. My mom went around the other side of the clothing rack stalking the poor girl.
"Come on Mom, why are you even bothering with her?" I caught her by her sleeve. "She's nothing - not even enough to take."
I was scared. Not of the girl getting taken, but scared because the girls went to school with me at community college. What in the world would I do if they found out what kind of person mother really was?
"You know when I was your age, I had taken dozens," mother said.
"But Mom," I said. "That was a long time ago and things have changed. Besides, I'm going to school so I can have a real job."
Mother ran her fingers through my hair and looked down at me with a disappointed glare. "I see that I've done a 'real job' of spoiling you. Do you think we could afford the lifestyle we lead, without mummy's work?"
"I know that's what you do mom, and there's nothing wrong with it. It's just that maybe I don't want to do it. I'm not like you."
"You're more like me than you know." That damned knowing smirk again.
"No I'm not."
"Yes you are."
"Am not."
"Okay sweetie, let's not argue," Mother said, as she reached over and rolled a silk blouse through her fingers. "And they call this silk? This is crap. I'm going to go see if I can find a store that doesn't have seconds."
"The shirt is fine Mother."
"Maybe for you," she said patronizingly. "Surely they have something of quality in this mall. Really, I wouldn't even come in here if it wasn't for THEM. Tell you what, I'll meet you in the food court in an hour. "
To tell the truth, I was glad to leave her. It wasn't the clothes that she didn't like. Mother liked clothes. But there was one thing she loved more than clothes and that was taking. It was obvious what her mind was on today. She would probably take someone today and I didn't want to be around when she did it.
I shopped for awhile and tried on a new pair of shoes. The saleswoman wasn't very helpful or attentive, so I put my old shoes back in the box and left. An hour later I met mom at the food court. We ordered sushi and sat down to eat at one of the small tables with an umbrella on top. Why people put umbrellas on tables that are indoors, I'll never know.
"You Take?" Mother asked.
"Just a pair of shoes." I showed them to her and she was her usual critical self.
"Want to see what I took?" she asked, beaming proudly.
"Sure."
She showed me the contents of her bag, a very young looking brightly colored shirt. Not mother's style at all, but the look in her eyes said she was pleased as a peach. She was smiling like the cat that ate the canary.
I thought it was for me at first, but then my stomach lurched as I recognized where I had last seen the blouse. "Mother, you didn't."
Her eyes twinkled. "Oh but I did. I'm sorry sweetie, but I couldn't resist. She was just too easy. It was like finding fifty dollars on the ground and no one was looking. Oh, and you were right, she does go to your little college. Isn't that nice?"
Damn, it was all my fault. I should have never left Mother alone. Not when she had that look in her eye. Now, what was I going to do? Yes, get out of there as quickly as possible. "That's it then mother. Okay, we're leaving right now. Quick, before she sees us together. I don't want to have to move again."
Mothers smile grew wider. Sometimes I hated her. She could be so infuriating.
"Oh, I don't think she'd like that very much sweetie," she said.
"This is serious mother. I have to go to school with these people. It's bad enough I've had to move around all my life. But this, this is totally and completely unforgivable," I said, being as forceful as I dared without being noticed by the other diners. "Tell me what you did."
"I did the old undercover security officer routine. I gave her a good searching and then I took everything. I've put all the new purchases I bought with her credit card and checks in the car already."
"Damn it mother," I said. "She was just a girl. *I* could have taken her. Why couldn't you have taken someone else? Someone more worthwhile."
"Like who?" Mother smirked.
"Oh, I don't know," I said. It was so exasperating talking to her sometimes. The point wasn't, who it was, just that she shouldn't cause me problems by picking people I might know. "Someone like that woman there," I said, nodding at a young woman passing by. Mother would never have chosen someone like her though. The woman obviously had money, judging from the clothes she was wearing, but she had an aloofness that suggested she was better than everyone else. It's hard to take from someone who won't even look at you.
"Take her then," mother said.
"No!" I wasn't taking anyone. "We're leaving."
"If not for yourself or for me, then do it for Penny."
"Penny who?"
"Your little friend from college," she said. "I didn't just Take her money. . . I Took *everything*. She's in a restroom stall, naked as the day she was born. I told her I would send someone back later with her clothes."
"Where is she?" I demanded. "We're giving them back -- right now."
"I'm not telling," she said smugly. "I'm not telling unless you Take . . . her." She nodded at the retreating from of the woman I had noticed earlier.
Damn it - damn it - what was I going to do? "Someone else mother. Someone easy." Why did I pick her anyway? Why couldn't I have chosen a young boy or an old man.