2: 2
2.
Gayle stalled for a second.
"Look, sweetheart, once you call the cops, they open a case. A hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars, that's enough to put you and your mom away for ten years. You sure about this?"
I corrected her. "There's no case to open unless there's a case. You say my mother spent a hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars, so where's your proof?"
Gayle laughed and waved the bill in her hand.
"This right here. Proof enough?"
My answer was flat and blunt.
"A bill is just a bill. It doesn't prove my mother bought anything from you."
"So if I print you a bill for a million, you're just going to hand me a million?"
"You're twisting everything!" Gayle couldn't win the argument, so she raised her voice to cover for the guilt underneath.
I didn't bother wasting more breath on her. I just dialed the police.
"Hello, is this 911? My mother and I are being extorted at a mall for buying clothes—"
The word extorted wasn't even fully out of my mouth before Gayle panicked.
She grabbed my phone and hung up, but the same old arrogance was right back on her face.
"Ma'am, why put yourself through all this?"
"A hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine isn't that much, but if you really drag the police into it, you and your mother won't dodge jail time. "
"Tell you what. I'll take the loss myself and give you a discount. I'll knock off the odd change. Pay a hundred and ninety thousand and we'll call it even, all right?"
Nearly two hundred thousand in merchandise, with ten thousand shaved off the end. That was a generous cut, honestly.
Any other day, I'd have been thrilled.
But right now, looking at my mother's messed-up hair and makeup and her red eyes, I told her, word by word, "No."
Gayle got a little anxious and gave ground again. "Fine, a discount on top of the discount. A hundred and eighty thousand?"
"No good. A hundred and seventy. Or a hundred and sixty, I can do that too."
"I really can't go any lower. The mall lists fixed prices, and this is already the lowest I can give you using my employee discount. Go any lower and I'm paying out of my own pocket."
"You can't expect me to sell you clothes and eat ten grand of my own money on it."
My mother tugged carefully at the hem of my shirt. "Mel, honey, maybe I should just pay it."
"A hundred and sixty. That still leaves a few thousand for your partnership stake—"
I looked at the calluses worn into her palms and said nothing.
A hundred and sixty thousand wasn't much. Less than what I earned on a single case.
But to my mother, it was half a lifetime of savings.
She'd had no schooling. All she could do was work that little patch of land back home with her own back.
A hundred and sixty thousand was how many times she'd bent over, how much sweat she'd poured out, saved up penny by penny.
If I let her hand that money over, I would never forgive myself, not for the rest of my life.
I took the card back and tucked it into the inside pocket against her body, and I told her.
"Mom, we can buy the dress, but nobody's making a sucker out of us."
"Ninety-nine a piece, nine hundred ninety for ten. One cent more and I won't pay it."
Gayle exploded. "What's that supposed to mean? You want it for free, is that it?"
"I knew it. You country people are full of tricks!"
"Forget the change I offered to knock off, forget the discount, it's a hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine! One cent short and neither of you walks out that door today!"
Gayle finished and pulled the security office door shut, and my expression dropped in that instant.
"So you're planning on false imprisonment?"
Gayle corrected my choice of words.
"Don't make it sound so ugly. You owe a debt, you pay it. That's how the world works."
"You're welching and refusing to pay, so I've got no choice but to take a few special measures."
"You two, get that card out of her hand for me!"
At Gayle's command, the two guards moved in at once and grabbed for it.
My mother instinctively clutched the card to her chest, and they shoved her down in one motion.
Her head struck the corner of the desk behind her, and the pain twisted the very sound of her cry.
I reached back on instinct and wiped a hand across the back of her head. It came away full of blood.
In that instant my face changed, and I got an arm around her and started for the door.
Gayle blocked us, hands planted on her hips.
"Pay up. A hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine, and not a cent less, or none of you leaves through this door."
