Pt 5

The twins were a little disappointed to learn that they would not be joining the older girls on their shopping trip but the excitement at the promise of the soft play centre soon made up for it! At their request, Beth sat in the back of the car, squeezed in between them, while Maddie rode in the front passenger seat because, as they explained, they were going to have lots more car rides with Maddie and Beth would be gone after Saturday so they wanted to spend time with her while they could.

Although Mrs Thomas was worried this request might make Maddie feel excluded, she seemed to have no issue with the idea and was, indeed, just excited to be going on an outing with anyone other than who she liked to think of as her ex-mother! Something about the frankness of the twins’ words had, however, troubled Beth a little. She knew in her head that agreeing to be cooked and eaten meant the end of her life and that the next few days were the last she had to live but hearing it said out loud that after Saturday she would be gone really brought it home to her. It was true – if anything of her was left after Saturday it would be leftovers in the fridge and bones to maybe be ground up for fertilizer. She herself would be gone!

The realisation did not trouble her enough to give her second thoughts about the agreement – seeing how excited the twins were to eat her was more than enough to push aside any lingering doubts, but she could not help being a little quiet on the journey into town.

Soon enough, however, Mrs Thomas pulled the car into the drop-off point outside the main mall and gave Maddie a kiss on the cheek while Jennifer hopped out of the car to let Beth out.

“See you later, girls!” Mrs Thomas waved to the girls as she drove off to give the twins their promised treat.

“So?” Beth asked her young companion with a relaxed smile, “Where do you want to look first?”

“I… actually don’t know.” Maddie admitted a little hesitantly. “We always had to go to this fancy boutique run by one of Mu… one of HER friends!” She practically spat this last comment. “I think she gave her a discount so she could dress me up like some doll in designer gear without actually having to pay what people think she paid!” She rolled her eyes. “So yeah,” she sighed, “I don’t really know where normal girls get their clothes?”

“Well I can show you where I get mine.” Beth smiled, feeling both sorry for her young friend and incredibly grateful that the Thomas’s had taken her in. “I don’t know if it will be your sort of thing but they do quite a lot of different things so I expect you’ll be able to find something.”

Inside the mall, it was quite charming to see the wide-eyed way Maddie looked around her, remarking and exclaiming about all the things she saw – the regular shopping mall seemed to hold as much wonder for her as Disneyland did to a child half her age. It seemed she really had been incredibly sheltered during what should have been her formative years and Beth was determined to make sure she had a good day.

“Here we are!” Beth announced with a rather theatrical flair as they arrived outside the clothing store where she liked to get her own clothes. They were not exactly of the highest quality but cheap and comfy and in a wide variety of styles so she could always find something there that she liked, whatever the time of year.

As she followed the excited youngster as she ran around the store, grabbing this and that from the pegs to try on, Beth imagined that she was getting a taste of what parenthood would be like, something she knew that she would never experience for real. To her surprise, although she was dressed in tight black leggings and a tight crop-top that was little more than a sports-bra, the kind of top a girl might wear for gymnastics of dance class and which showed off her toned tummy to great advantage, the clothes that Maddie were picking were far more conservative, innocent and on the younger-looking side of clothes aimed at her age-group rather than the more mature, older teen style her mother had dressed her in.

“I think I’m going to wear this to the party!” Maddie informed the older girl excitedly, holding up a yellow and white checked summer dress. It certainly did look very pretty. “Are you going to get a new outfit too or are you going to be naked the whole time?” She asked this question quite loudly, making Beth feel a little self-conscious but a quick glance about at the other shoppers within earshot convinced her that, if they had heard, they didn’t care.

“I was thinking of getting something loose I could wear at first at least,” Beth explained, “something that would leave any pressure marks on my skin. Maybe like a long t-shirt or something?”

“Let’s find you something!” Maddie grinned, “My treat! I insist!”

“Oh you really don’t need to…” Beth began to protest, thinking of the fairly thick wad of cash she still had left with only a few days left to spend. But the younger girl had made up her mind.

“No arguing!” She told her firmly. “You’ve done way more for me than I could ever make up to you so let me do this!”

“Okay!” Beth grinned, realising that this was important to her young friend. Any money that was left after her final spa treatment on Friday, she decided, she could use to buy birthday presents for the twins before heading over for the sleepover and maybe find some game they could all play together that evening. Most likely, she thought to herself, Maddie would be coming to her appointment with her and would, based on her reactions to the mall so far, really enjoy a visit to the toy store!

With Maddie’s arms practically over-flowing with potential new outfits to try on, the girls made their way over to the teen section where Beth began to browse the dresses and t-shirts before her eye alighted on something that made her gasp. It had not occurred to her to look in the underwear and nightwear section but she found herself drawn to a short, satin kimono-style dressing gown in a very pale creamy orange colour that she knew would go great with her hair. On the front, where pockets might be on a man’s shirt, were embroidered oriental patterns depicting birds and flowers with a much larger one on the back that looked like a heavily stylised tree.

“This is perfect!” She enthused, quickly searching the rack for one in her size, taking it down and holding it up against herself. It hung to just above her knee. “It will be so comfy against my bare skin because that’s what it’s meant for, it covers enough that I won’t feel like I’m totally on display, until I’m supposed to be that is, and it won’t leave any marks!”

“It’s gorgeous!” Maddie agreed. “It really suits you! Come on!” She grinned excitedly. “Let’s go try stuff on!”