Page 110 - Sweet Embraceable You: Coffee-House Stories

98 Jack Fritscher

taken him after school to find a winter coat. She had wanted to
shop at Penney’s, but he had fast-talked her into a better buy at the
Army-Navy Outlet. She had thought of her hus band, a strict man
Robert did not know was not his father, who had said the boy’s
last year’s parka would fit well enough this season. Robert thought
only of the brown leather bombardier’s jacket he and his buddies
had stared at through the plate glass window. They had pledged to
form their own squadron. His blood-buddy Stoney named himself
command pilot. Robert was to be head bombardier.
“This is the size,” Robert had said, handing the jacket to his
mother.
“That’s too large, I’m sure.”
“The boy’s probably right.” The clerk, whose name tag read
Nigel, had spoken archly over the perfect knot of his stylish silk tie.
“He really ought to know. He came in here several days ago with a
gang of boys who disturbed the manager no end. I remember your
boy especially. We caught him wearing this very jacket in the shoe
depart ment.”
“I was trying it on.”
“As a mother,” Nigel the clerk had said, “you ought to know.
We don’t favor unattended young boys roving through our store.”
His mother had been cowed. “Thank you,” she had said. “I’ll
talk to his father.”
Robert had ignored Nigel. He pulled the desired jacket down
from the clerk’s tight hand. He slipped in his arms and pulled the
zipper. “I like it.”
His mother had looked nervously at the clerk. “It does have
windcuffs.” Then making an unconvincing counterattack, for a
moment she stared the clerk in the eye. “Well, Robert,” she had
said, “we’ll take it. That’s what we’ll do. We’ll buy it right now.
No sense shopping around and then coming back right where we
started.” She looked Nigel the clerk dead on. “I think this will be
fine,” she had said. “Do you take charge cards? I’ll have to put it
on my charge card.”

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