Page 47 of Frosted and Sliced

They drove for a couple of hours, to a mall in Bangor. Burke pulled into the lot and turned off the car. Georgie looked around.

“What is this?” she asked.

“A mall.”

“But why are we here?” she asked.

“I need your help to pick out a Christmas gift for my mom,” Burke said. Then he opened the car door and stepped out while Georgie stared at the spot he had been, speechless.

When she failed to emerge from the car, he came around to her side and opened the door. “Are you coming?”

She eased from the car. “Are you serious?”

“As a heart attack. Why?”

Georgette pressed her hands to her temples, trying to hold her brain in. “Burke, I have a million things to do today. This is basically my last chance to decorate because I need to finish the food the next couple of days.”

“It’ll be fine,” Burke said, his attention already on the mall, eyes squinted as if he could see inside the building.

Georgette contemplated kicking his shins. Could he really be this oblivious? Yes, because it was Burke. But he wasn’t usually so selfish, so thoughtless. “Burke,” she said, exasperated beyond all reason.

“What?” he said, completely incognizant of the inconvenience to her schedule.

Georgie sighed. Even if he turned around and took her home immediately, she would already have lost hours of the day. She might as well focus on what he wanted done and start afresh tomorrow. She massaged her temples. “What exactly do you want to buy your mother?”

“Something that says I love you but I need a few states of space from you,” Burke said.

“Maybe a radiation lantern? It has a warm glow, but if you get close to it you’ll die,” she suggested.

Burke patted his pockets. “I should write this down.”

“What do you usually get her?” she asked.

“A something of the month club,” Burke said.

“A what?”

“You know, like jelly or pears or something. One time it was coffee, except I forgot she doesn’t drink coffee. That was not a good year.”

“Does she buy you presents?” Georgie asked.

“She usually makes something, a scarf or something. I have a lot of scarves.”

“I have never once seen you wear a scarf,” Georgie noted.

“Exactly. So maybe my mom’s not a good gift giver, either.”

“Okay, let’s see what we can find.” Georgette turned and headed toward the mall, Burke beside her. “Where are you going?” she asked when he entered and immediately headed toward a store.

“The hat store. I can buy her a hat,” he said.

“First of all those are all baseball caps,” Georgette noted.

“So?”

“So is your mother a long-haul trucker?” she asked.

He squinted at the store. “What’s your point? They seem like nice hats.”

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