He caught a glimpse of blue in the rear view mirror, followed by a screech of rubber on pavement. The blue car’s front doors swung open. A pair of men stepped out. One wore a black ball cap with a flaming red C and the other wore mirrored sunglasses. The man with the ball cap shook his fist, “Hey, old man, where’d you learn to drive?”
Nonno glanced ahead. There was no place to go. He looked at Nonna, “Just a couple of hotheads.”
The men were on either side of the van. “Are you deaf? You cut me off!” said the man with the ball cap. His face was against the glass on Nonno’s side.
“Who’s the cow in there with you?” Sunglasses peered in the other side.
Nonno felt his anger turn white hot.
“Hey, she’s naked!” Ball Cap laughed.
Nonno pushed the door open against Ball Cap. “Son a ma bitch!” Nonno released the seat belt and had his feet on the pavement when Ball Cap pushed back. The door pinned Nonno’s shoulder and head. Ball Cap shoved. Ernesto screamed.
“It’s a love doll!” Sunglasses laughed.
Ernesto pushed against the door. “Culo!” The pressure on his head and shoulder eased.
“Gimme some help over here!” Ball Cap said.
Ernesto heaved. The van rocked. Ball Cap skidded backwards. “Hurry!” Ball Cap leaned against the door. “The old bastard’s strong!”
A horn blast froze Ball Cap. Ernesto was outside of the van. Sunglasses looked around the parking lot. Heads turned in their direction. “Forget it. He’s just a dirty old man.”
Nonno kicked out and just missed connecting with Ball Cap’s backside. Ball Cap and Sunglasses crawled inside their car and slammed the doors. Nonno leaned his right palm against the van’s hood then snatched it away from the heat. Making a fist with his right hand, he raised an obscene salute. The car sped away. The old man eased his bruised hip up against the sun baked metal of the van. The horn continued to howl. Nonno leaned inside. “Are you okay?” The doll’s head was jammed up against the horn. Nonno pushed her upright. In the sudden quiet he said, “Sure I’m okay.” He wiped the sleeve of his shirt across his forehead. “No, I promised you a new dress today.”
Nonno rubbed at the pain. “It’s just a little bump on the head. Don’t worry about those two, they’re long gone.” He shut his door, moved around to Nonna’s side and opened the door. Nonno pulled her arms and let the doll fall over his right shoulder. Her hair brushed against his backside. He locked his right arm behind Nonna’s knees. “No, your bum won’t get sun burnt.” He shut the door. “How else am I gonna pick out the right dress if you don’t come along?” Nonno crossed the pavement, stepped up onto the sidewalk and walked through the automatic door. “Don’t worry, everybody’ll think you’re a doll.”
Nonno saw a five year old boy with chocolate down the front of his white T-shirt. He stuck a thumb behind a loose front tooth and lifted it like a door hinged at the top. “Hi, I’m Randy!”
“Oh, hello,” Nonno said then whispered to the doll, “See, I said hello.”
Nonno looked from left to right noting the pointing fingers, open mouths and smiles hidden behind palms.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get a wheelchair.” Where the hallways in the mall intersected, a green kiosk sat with a customer service sign under the 6-49 logo. Nonno got down on one knee to ease Nonna down onto a bench. He carefully crossed one of her legs over the other and turned to the lady at the kiosk. “I need a wheelchair.”
The woman smiled back. Her name tag said MARJ.
Nonno leaned closer and said, “She’s too heavy to carry. Just don’t tell her I said so.” He smiled.
Marj brushed at a stray hair over her ear. She looked over Nonno’s shoulder, then back at him. The furrows in her forehead got deeper.
“Need to buy her some clothes.” Then Nonno said, hoping the woman would understand if only he could explain. “Told her she don’t need clothes in the summer but we can’t go anyplace without someone making some smart aleck remark.”
“This is really unusual.” Marj looked to her left and spotted the phone.
“MY WIFE,” Nonno said the words slowly and at a traffic stopping volume, “NEEDS SOME CLOTHES.”
Marj looked down at the counter top. Nonno read her indecision. They glanced at a sign on the counter: The Customer is Always Right. Both smiled.
Nonno looked over his shoulder, “I wasn’t being rude,” he said to the doll.
Marj almost broke a nail in her hurry to open the gate. “Your wheelchair is right here, sir.”
Nonno said, “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome, sir.” Marj pushed the chair through the open gate and rolled it beside the doll.
“I’ll bring it back… ” Nonno said.
“No problem.” Marj held her palms forward while backing away.
Reading the indecision in her eyes, he said, “I know, you’re thinking a good husband would have bought her a dress sooner.”
“Thank you, Mister?”
“Ernesto, just call me Ernesto.”
“Thank you Mr. Ernesto.”
“No, it’s Ernesto. No Mister,” Nonno said.
“Okay, Nomisterernesto.”
“Okay, I won’t bother the poor woman anymore,” he said to the doll. Then he said to Marj, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Ernesto lifted Nonna into the chair, bent her knees and rested her feet on the flat metal foot pads.
“Hey Mom, that woman’s naked!” The voice was at least twice as big as the child. Ernesto caught a glimpse of her before an arm appeared from inside the western wear store to pull her back. “But Mom!”
Ernesto leaned close to his wife, “I know, I know, she’s just a kid. Just like Ernie.”
Sunlight knifed through rooftop windows. It formed sharp shadows on the Italian marble floor.
“Remember that holiday in Italy?” Nonno said.
They passed into shadow.
“The sun was strong like today. You had to stay in the shade during the hottest time. Miguel was born nine months later.”
In silence, they passed through another patch of sunlight. Red and white SALE signs adorned one shop. “Wanna try here?”
They stopped in front of a mannequin who held her arms out to them. She wore a red one piece bathing suit. “No? You still wanna keep looking?”
Ernesto pushed her past a sports shop, craft shop and book store. Passing a stack of books, he read a cover: Getting Away with Murder. Nonno looked away, then said, “I don’t think it’s an instruction manual. We don’t need it. Who’s gonna think to dig that deep?”
Nonno leaned forward, listening to the doll. “The other family’s gotta big reputation around town. Even if the police do start to dig, they’ll have to wait while the lawyers argue. By then, there won’t be much to find. Just worry about Leona. Her name shoulda been Big Mouth.”
A woman stepped in front of them. She pulled a cell phone from a black leather handbag. Just visible in the V of her white silk blouse was the business end of a gold crucifix.
“Watch out!” Ernesto said.
The woman stopped. For over three seconds she studied the doll. She looked Ernesto in the eye and said, “Pervert!”
Ernesto was caught in the heavy wake of the woman’s perfume. “Donna de la notte!”
“What did you say?” the woman said.
Ernesto pushed on to The Sony Store. For an instant he and Nonna were caught on a wide screen TV. The nipple of one of her breasts caught his eye. For a moment he was drowning. Nonno’s feet couldn’t reach bottom. Fatigue reached out with cold hands. He took a long breath. Pushing on, he felt the warmth of equilibrium returning.
“She called me a pervert. I called her a hooker.” He looked left. The mannequin in a store window had her hands on her hips. She wore a sleeveless cotton dress with blue, red, white and pink petals.
“You sure?” Nonno turned into the store.
The woman behind the counter might have been 25. She wore the same dress as the mannequin. Red hair hung down on either side of her face.