Read Tea Cups & Tiger Claws for Free Online Page B

they put dead people before they went in the ground.
    “Hello Mrs. Railer.”
    “Hello Mrs. Skinner.”
    “And how is little Princess Could’ve-Been?” asked Mrs. Skinner, but she didn’t wait for an answer before she started laughing her head off. The other ladies in the store laughed too.
    “Dorthea is fine,” said Ermel. Mrs. Skinner talked to another lady and didn’t listen.
    “Stay next to me and don’t touch nothin’,” said Ermel, as she led Dorthea to a rack of shoes against the wall at the far end of the counter. Ermel picked up a shoe, looked at the tag, and put it back. She picked up another and put it back. Then she picked up another, put it on the floor next to Dorthea’s bare feet, and said, “There. These will do.”
    “I don’t like ‘em. The other kids got those there. They’re called Weatherbird shoes. I want those.”
    Ermel picked up one of the shoes, looked at the tag, and said, “You ain’t gettin’ ‘em. You’re gettin’ these here.”
    “Those are ugly. I want the Weatherbird shoes.”
    “How ‘bout if you don’t get no shoes at all, and I just have your daddy cut the toes off an old stinky pair of boots and you wear those to school?”
    “I don’t want that neither.”
    “Then I guess you gotta take these now don’t you?”
    Ermel dragged Dorthea over to the cash register. Mrs. Skinner, who stood behind the counter, came over. She put on the eye glasses which hung on a chain around her neck, looked at the shoes, and then looked at Ermel.
    “And will that be cash, Mrs. Railer?”
    “Charge.”
    Mrs. Skinner frowned and put down the shoes. “Mrs. Railer, you know you can’t charge on accounts thirty days past due, and yours is over six months.”
    “That can’t be possible. Mr. Railer settled our account months ago. There must be a mistake with your bookkeeping.”
    “Is that so?”
    “Yes, I believe it is.”
    “Well then, you have Mr. Railer come and show me a receipt and we’ll fix that mistake. In the meantime that’ll be a dollar-seventy-five—cash.”
    Ermel grumbled and looked for money in her orange pocketbook . Dorthea felt her face turn red. She looked at the ground. Just then the sound of laughter filled the store, the doors flew open, and two little girls ran in, followed by their mother.
    “Mommy, mommy, can we have licorice?”
    “I don’t want licorice. I want corn candy. Can I have corn candy, mommy?”
    And then the girls saw Dorthea and stopped in their tracks. They stared at her with their mouths open, just as Dorthea stared at them. Everyone else stared too.
    “Hello Mrs. Railer,” said their mother.
    “Hello lady,” said Ermel.
    They had black, wavy hair, short like their mother, with a band of white and red beads wrapped around their heads with more beads hanging down by their ears. They wore matching rose colored dresses with no sleeves. On one side of the belt, which they each wore loosely around their waist, was a big bow. Dorthea had seen dresses like these in the magazine at the doctor’s office. She wanted to look at her sleeve to make sure the tar paper still held it in place, but she didn’t.
    “Is that your mommy?” asked one of the girls to Dorthea.
    “Yes,” said Dorthea.
    “That’s our mommy,” said the girl, with a smile.
    Dorthea looked up at their mother. She looked like a doll with a white face and red lips and big eyes. She didn’t have buck teeth or messy hair or dirty clothes.
    “Your name is Dorthea. Do you know our names?”
    “No.”
    “My name is Judith and her name is Abigail, but everyone calls her Abbey. She doesn’t like to talk to new people. You used to be our sister. Did you know that?”
    “Yes, I know that.”
    “But we’re not sisters anymore, and my nanny says I should thank God every day for that.”
    “Judith,” said their mother, “maybe we should let Dorthea and her mother finish their shopping.”
    “Your Grace,” said Mrs. Skinner, as she came around the counter, “it