by Emma Redmer
Another story with a real-life inspiration. My college roommate and I used to take a day out together early in December to get all our Christmas shopping done at a local mall and big-box shopping center. This is based around the trip from early December 2001. She'd just bought a bunch of candles for her mother and grandmother at the mall across the street, and I had toys for my siblings. We were trying to figure out how to carry it all when I hit on using the carts from the big-box stores...
“I can’t believe how heavy two candles are!”
I groaned as we left the Rio Del Ray Mall. “You just HAD to buy two candles the size of your head from Yankee Candle! Did you forget we’re taking the bus home?”
“At least I don’t have twenty people to shop for.”
“I can’t help it if my cousins have a lot of kids!”
Jessie sighed as we puffed across the parking lot towards Target. “You know what? Let’s not fight about this. We still have Target and Best Buy to do, and we need to buy wrapping paper at the dollar store.”
“And I want to take a quick look at Michael’s for an embroidery hoop for Mom.”
That was when I saw it. It was bright red with white lettering that had been half-rubbed off. It was a little rusty and titled slightly to one side. It was beautiful. “Do you see what I see, Jess?”
“What, Miranda? All I see is a shopping cart.”
I hurried over to the cart and dumped my bags in. “The answer to our prayers!”
“What do you mean?” She dropped her candles in the basket on top of my bag of toys.
“Target won’t notice if we take their cart a little further than the store. We can take it to Michael’s, and then take one from theirs to Best Buy, and then take the Best Buy cart to the dollar store.”
Jessie groaned. “You’re crazy! They’ll think we’re stealing! We’ll end up in jail over a few lousy Christmas presents!”
“No, we won’t.” I pushed the cart through Target’s sliding doors. “Trust me.”
We’re lucky we weren’t arrested. We hurried from one store to another, transferring bags from cart to cart. We laughed a lot. And oh yeah, we did finish our shopping. By the time we were at the bus stop, we were drooping under our finds...and still laughing.
“I sure hope Mom likes the embroidery set I found. It’ll be really interesting to wrap.”
“I hope my Mom likes the candle.” Jessie sighed. “Next year, if you promise to get your car out of the shop, I’ll promise not to buy something heavy the moment we’re there.”
I grinned at her. “It’s a deal.”
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