The Long And Winding Road
Notes: Thanks to YellyBelly (Welcome back!), ShimmeringEvil, Fearless Dreamer, PsYcHoJo & cutiepye06655 for the reviews/comments. Since I made the "JT/Sean confrontation" scenario different than what might have been expected, I'm glad to know it was well received.
Also, to Fearless Dreamer – Don't worry. Constructive criticism is a good thing to receive. But the quotation method you said was wrong (if I understood your point correctly) is actually an acceptable approach. Teachers I've had (and style guides I've had to read) have always said that if the quote for one person lasts more than one paragraph, use quotation marks at the beginning of each paragraph but at the end of only the last paragraph. No big thing, though. It's just the quoting method I'm used to. Perhaps there are different methods and you've learned it one way and I learned another. Still, I thank you for your comments and for continuing to read the story.
Story Note: You'll notice that a little time has passed since the last chapter – going from the latter part of November to less than two weeks before Christmas. (If I hadn't moved on, I'd end up writing holiday-time stories in January, which doesn't sound like quite as much fun.) If anything big happened for JT and/or Emma in those interim weeks, you can be sure it'll get referenced or recalled somewhere in the story.
Chapter 27 -- You Better Shop Around
Emma and Manny slowly made their way through the crowded mall during the middle of the next to last Saturday before Christmas.
"I can't believe you did that, Emma. I should, but I can't."
"You're making too much out of it, Manny."
"I'm surprised security didn't come and throw us out."
"We're still here, aren't we?"
"You don't think you were a little extreme?"
"Extreme?"
"Sorry, I forgot who I was asking," Manny joked.
"One of the worst things about going through that department store back there is that before we can get out the back way and into the main mall area, we have to pass the cosmetics area. And what do we see in that area?"
"I was there, Emma."
"We see HER. Sure, it's always someone different, and every department store seems to have one, but it might as well be the same person. She's the woman who blocks everyone's path and asks if you want to sample the store's latest perfume. Then, before you can even say 'No' she's already spraying some of it in your direction."
"I know, Emma, but…"
"There are so many things wrong with people doing that. First, how do I know what's being sprayed on me? Is it really safe? Was it tested on poor defenseless animals in a dark laboratory somewhere where nobody could hear the creatures crying out in pain? Then, there's the fact that some people might be allergic and this crazed perfume sprayer could be causing someone major medical problems."
"Uh, you're not allergic to stuff like that."
"Yeah, lucky for me. But there are others who aren't so fortunate. And besides all of those reasons, it's just plain rude the way they get in your face like that. People like her just need to back off."
"Still, I don't think you should have snatched the perfume out of the woman's hand and sprayed it in her face."
"It's not like I pointed it at her eyes, Manny. Besides, since she didn't like it, maybe in the future she'll think twice before accosting people."
"She's just doing her job, Em."
"Then that makes her a toad. But not the cute kind that hang out on lily pads."
"Well, you've got the same fighting spirit you've always had, but with a peculiar sense of humor added in. I can tell that the JT Yorke influence is at work. But it suits you."
"Thanks," Emma smiled.
"Now if you've filled your crusade quota for the day, has the mall given you any inspiration yet?"
"No. You had a good idea to come here, Manny, but I still don't have a clue."
"Christmas is only a little over a week away, Emma."
"I know, and I've gotten all my other shopping done. But I can't think of what would make a great gift for JT."
"You know he's going to love anything you get him."
"But this is our first Christmas together. Sure, in the past we got cards for one another, each of us competing to see who could find the silliest yet cleverest card. And we'd get each other little things at birthday time. But this is major. I want to find something that both fits his personality and will remind him how I feel about him."
"How about clothes?"
"He's got plenty."
"Well, how about some sexy lingerie?"
"Uh, I don't think he's into wearing stuff like that. Not that I've ever actually asked him, but…No! Of course he wouldn't wear stuff like that."
"I meant get some for you to wear…for him."
"Manny!"
"Okay, okay. I figured you wouldn't go for it, but I wanted to watch that little vein that comes out on your forehead when you start to lose it."
"Very funny."
"What about CDs?"
"Between the two of us, we've already got our musical interests covered."
"DVDs?"
"Seems so impersonal."
"He helps run a theater, Emma. He likes movies. I'm sure there are a lot of films you could get that he doesn't have but wants."
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to look. Do they still have a video store in this mall?"
"I think they just put in a new one a few weeks ago. I see a map over there. Let's go check."
Emma laughed.
"What is it?" Manny asked.
"This just made me think about the last time JT and I were here," Emma explained. "JT went into this whole routine about the mall map. He questioned how the map was able to say 'You are here' when even he didn't know where we were. He said there must be hidden cameras all around and that we were obviously caught in the middle of The Great Mall Conspiracy. He then said that our experience would make for a great movie…that is, if the Evil Mall Overlords didn't apprehend us first. He kept going on like this for several minutes and I think the passers-by thought he was putting on some kind of performance. If he'd had a hat on the ground, I bet they would have left money for him."
"Emma, I'm beginning to think that the managers start running in the opposite direction when they seeing you two coming into a store."
Meanwhile, in the main office of The Movie Difference, JT sat behind the desk making a phone call.
"Liberty? Hey, it's me. Were you able to locate…?"
"All three of them," Liberty answered. "Was there ever any doubt?"
"Great! I'm about to leave on my lunch break so I'll come by in about five minutes and get them, then we can take the whole thing over to the shop."
"Sounds good."
"You're sure the people that work at this place know what they're doing? I mean, they're professionals, right? Not crackheads, or maybe just terminally stupid."
"I've never had any problems there, JT."
"Good. I don't want anything to go wrong with this. And there's only a few days left. If they screw up…"
"Quit worrying. They'll get it done accurately and on time. You had a great idea. Emma's going to love this."
"I hope so. But in case she doesn't, I have another gift to give her as well."
"And what's that?"
"Just something I saw in a store window that I knew I had to get. Don't be so nosy."
"Be nice."
"I'm always nice, Liberty. It's one of my faults."
Liberty laughed.
"Anyway," JT continued, "thanks for the help. I looked all over but couldn't find them. You're the only one I knew who would have the solution."
At the mall's video store, which one could have charitably described as a hole in the wall, Emma and Manny browsed.
"Any luck?" Manny asked.
"I found a few things I wouldn't mind watching," Emma replied, "but I don't see anything that wouldn't make JT pretend to get sick. The comedies aren't older than a couple of years. The closest thing to a horror title I could find was some straight-to-video thing from last year called 'Frankenhooker Gets A Body' which I don't think is based on any best-selling novels. And they don't have any of those goofy 60s and 70s cult films he likes either."
"Mall stores never have as much on display as normal stores, Emma. Maybe they have more stuff in back. Ask that guy sitting behind the register."
"You mean that 300-pound guy in his 20s wearing the 'No Fat Chicks' T-shirt who's scratching himself?"
"What have you got to lose?"
"You mean besides my last shred of common sense?"
At this, Manny rolled her eyes.
"Okay, Manny. I'm going."
Emma approached the register.
"Excuse me."
"Hi there, pretty lady," the man responded. "What can I do you for?"
"Oh God," Manny said, mostly to herself, now realizing that this couldn't possibly go well.
"First," Emma replied, "you can promise never to say 'What can I do you for' to anyone…ever again…ever. Then, maybe you can help me and my friend locate some titles."
"Titles?"
"Of movies. You know. Motion pictures. Ever heard of them? I mean even in this poorly-lit hovel, amidst all the candy, video games and borderline porn, there ARE some movies for sale, correct?"
"Of course we sell movies. You two planning a little girls night at home?"
"Stay calm, Emma," Manny interjected.
"I'm looking for something that would make a good Christmas gift," Emma explained.
"Everything we've got is out on the shelves."
"You don't have anything else? Maybe in your storeroom?"
"Sorry."
"No old movies?"
"We've got old movies. Like I said, it's all out here. Why, we got stuff that goes all the way back to 2002."
"Forget it. Let's go, Manny."
The man ogles the young women as they start to leave.
"Hey," the man called out. "I just remembered. I think I DO have something you'd like back in the storeroom. How about I close up shop for awhile and the three of us can go back there and take a look."
At this, Emma's eyes widened and she then had a look of outrage on her face. Emma walked back toward the counter with Manny close behind.
"You REALLY shouldn't have said that," Manny told him, smiling.
"For the record," Emma began, "you couldn't convince us to jump off a sinking ship with you, much less go anywhere near your back room. And even if I was wearing 5 pairs of gloves and you didn't look and act like something a diseased squirrel vomited up, I still wouldn't touch one hair on your one-bath-taken-per-year-if-lucky head. By the way, where is the manager? You'd think he'd want to know what kind of person – and I use that term loosely – is working the register."
"I AM the manager."
"I think we'd better go, Em."
"In a moment," Emma said to Manny before turning her attention one last time to the man behind the counter. "One final word of advice. You should try flirting with the trigger-happy perfume sprayer in that department store down the other side of the mall. I bet you're the challenge she's been looking for all her life."
Emma and Manny then left the store.
"Was it something I said?" the man called out, receiving no response.
"Don't say it, Manny," Emma said as they started walking.
"What?"
"You're going to complain that I caused another scene."
"No, he definitely deserved it. But I bet all you did was turn him on. Come on, you know this has to be the most attention he's gotten from a woman in…well…ever."
"Best not to think about it like that."
"Emma, I bet he's going to fantasize about that conversation for years."
"Okay, now that's just…wrong."
The two then started laughing.
"I've really missed this," Manny said once they started to calm down.
"What? Me complaining at someone?"
"All of it, Em. Hanging out like this. Just us. I knew if I could get you to do something with me, we'd have fun today."
"I suppose you were right."
"It's been a long time."
"I agree, Manny. But we're here now. Only I'm still stuck for a gift. Maybe I'll have better luck at one of the real video stores in town."
"Even though you're doing gifts this year, are you still going to look for a strange card? Or are you going to pick one of the more romantic ones?"
"JT's a really romantic guy when he wants to be, but I don't think he'll go for one of those heavy-handed manufactured-sentiment cards."
"Then why don't you write him a letter, Emma? Give THAT to him instead of a card."
"A letter?"
"Sure. Why not? Okay, so he probably knows all the stuff you'd write down anyway, but this way he'll have it all there on paper so he can see it anytime he wants. Besides, didn't you say he was encouraging you about your writing a few weeks ago?"
"Yeah, but that was about writing petitions and not getting discouraged."
"Doesn't matter. JT will like getting something you've written that's just for him. Trust me."
Emma noticed that Manny sounded slightly downcast toward the end.
"Thinking about Craig and the songs he used to write for you?"
"Maybe a little. But you writing JT a letter would be the same type of thing. Your thoughts about him and about the two of you all on the page."
"That's a good idea. Thanks Manny."
"Just remember," Manny cautioned, cheering up, "it's supposed to be a letter, not a novel. Try not to write hundreds of pages."
"You think you're so funny, don't you?"
"Not as funny as JT, but someone has to show a sense of humor around you when you keep having confrontations in all the stores."
"I'll ignore that. Want to grab some lunch?"
"Sounds good."
"If we eat now, we'll still have time to check a few video stores before I meet JT at the theater for our movie date at 4:00. Manny?"
Emma turned to notice that Manny stopped a few feet back and was now staring inside the window of a store selling baby clothes. Emma walked back toward her.
"Are you okay?" Emma asked.
"This would have been his – or her – first Christmas. Well, the first Christmas outside in the world. I still would have been pregnant this time last year if…well, you know."
"I hadn't even been thinking about…I'm sorry, Manny. We should have taken a different path to the Food Court."
"It's okay. It's gotten to where I sometimes go weeks at a time without thinking about the miscarriage. But seeing this store, not to mention that Mall Santa earlier where the parents were bringing their kids to have pictures taken, it all started coming back to me."
Emma put her arm around Manny's shoulders.
"Manny, you know that someday years from now you're going to have a house full of kids."
"I'm sure you're right."
"Yeah. And hopefully there won't be a house full of different fathers to go with it."
At that remark, Manny let out a slight laugh.
"Good," Emma said. "I'm glad you know I was kidding."
"I bet I won't be the only one with a lot of kids, Em. I can just see the children that'll have you and JT for parents. You're going to have all of them marching up and down in various protest demonstrations, except – thanks to JT – their picket signs will all have jokes written on them. Oh, and you'll bring them fruit snacks and JT will slip them hamburgers when you aren't looking."
Emma laughed and the two resumed walking. As they got close to the Food Court, they passed the mall's theater, which caught Emma's attention.
"That's it!" Emma suddenly declared.
"What's it?"
"You gave me the letter idea to go with instead of a card. And now I think I know just the gift to get him."