Mr. Cho fills a void in Lorna—he is the parent she wishes she had. He encourages her, and he applauds her. He gave her a full week off with pay when Nana died. When she came back to work, he had convinced the other staff to chip in and buy her flowers. She put them on the small bar behind the soda counter and grinned at them all day.
It’s not long before Mr. Cho begins to trust Lorna to close up at night. After he’s finished all the accounting and paperwork, he leaves Lorna to sweep the floors and restock the toilet paper in the bathrooms and put items abandoned at the cashier counter back where they belong. She clocks out on her own and leaves through the front door, always careful to lock it. If she ever forgets, Mr. Cho says, she should not worry. He has a camera and his daughter, Candy, lives two blocks away. She monitors it. If Lorna ever needs anything, Candy will be there within a few minutes.
One night when Lorna is working late, Mom sends Kristen to pick her up. Kristen has been hanging around Lorna lately. She says she is “totally sober” and “totally bored.” Lorna knows enough to know that “sober” and “not using” are two different things to Kristen, and while she believes Kristen when she says she isn’t using—she always wants to believe her—she doesn’t know if she’s truly sober. That is, if she’s truly committed to it.
But Kristen does seem different to Lorna. More like the Kristen of old, the sister she laughed with, who would fix her hair, who would help her choose the right clothes to wear. “You would dress like a caveman if I weren’t here to help you,” Kristen likes to say.
Lorna thinks she’s probably right.
They talk about work and the people they work with. They make up superlatives for them. “Most Likely to Marry for Money,” Kristen says of a coworker. “Most Likely to Call Off Work,” Lorna says of her coworker. They giggle over TV dinners and choose more superlatives for everyone on the street.
Lorna enjoys Kristen’s company again. It feels like it has been forever since they were just sisters without extenuating issues, and they fall easily into the habit of being together.
Kristen has been on her best behavior, coming home after work, not disappearing. Even trying to get along with Mom.
Mr. Cho has a rule that no friends are allowed in the store after hours, but he never said anything about sisters. Kristen sits on a red stool, twirling around, talking on the phone to someone about her favorite ice cream flavors while Lorna sweeps. When Lorna goes into the bathrooms to replenish the toilet paper, she can hear Kristen still talking to someone, and when she comes out, Kristen is still on the red stool. “Let’s drive through Whataburger,” she says. “I’m starving.”
“Okay,” Lorna says. “I just have to clock out and turn off the lights.” She makes one last sweep of the aisles and goes to the back and clocks out, then turns out the lights as she heads to the front glass doors. Kristen trails behind her. But as Lorna reaches the door, she sees someone walking up. It’s a police officer.
“Shit,” Kristen says. “Are there cameras?”
“What?” Lorna asks, confused by her question.
Kristen bumps into her, knocking against her purse. She grabs Lorna’s arm and squeezes. “Listen, Lolo, if they pop me, I’ll go back to jail. I’ll lose my probation. You’re a minor.”
“What?” Lorna’s brain is not working, other than to sound alarms. She can’t understand why the cop is reaching for the door, gesturing for her to open it, or why Kristen is talking about jail.
“Just be cool,” Kristen says.
Lorna opens the door and the cop walks in. She sees two more cops walking up to the door behind him. “What’s wrong?” she asks.
“You tell me,” the cop says. “Empty the contents of your purses. Both of you.”
Lorna does, of course, because she is a rule follower. She dumps everything right there on the checkout counter. And then everything happens so fast. She watches with amazement as makeup and jewelry with tags on them spill out of her purse.
“Oh my God, Lorna. What were you thinking?” Kristen says behind her. Nothing falls out of Kristen’s purse but some cigarettes and some wadded-up dollar bills.
“Wait,” Lorna says, trying desperately to make sense of this. But by the time she pieces it together, the cuffs are on her and she’s been arrested for shoplifting.
Later, she is released on her own recognizance, and Kristen is waiting for her on the street, smoking a cigarette. When she sees Lorna, she drops it and grinds it out with her heel. “Don’t be mad,” she says, reaching for Lorna. “I could have done time for that.”
Lorna twists out of her reach. She is in such a full-on rage she can’t even speak.
“It’s not that big of a deal,” Kristen says. “When you turn eighteen, it will fall off your record. No one cares—everyone shoplifts as a teen.”
“No, Kristen, not everyone,” Lorna bites out, her voice shaking. “And I care.Icare, Kristen!”
It is a huge deal, of course. Lorna is fired from her job by a very weary-looking Mr. Cho. His daughter had called the police after seeing something on the camera. Lorna tries to explain she didn’t do it, but the camera angle was not great, and the itemswere in her purse. She is kicked off the volleyball team before the tournament season even begins. She is assessed fines, which means all the money she has saved working is now going to a court.
At home, Kristen is contrite and keeps reminding Lorna that it could have been worse, that it was just a Class C misdemeanor, which will fall off her record when she turns eighteen. When Lorna does not tell Kristen it’s okay, it’s fine, Kristen gets angry. “This is no big deal, Lorna,” she snaps. “It’s only a problem becauseyouare making it a problem.”
Lorna is stunned. “Are you kidding me right now? I let down the one person in my life who believes in me.”
“Who?” Kristen asks. “Mom? Believe me, she thinks her precious Lolo can do no harm.”
“Not Mom. Mr. Cho.”
Kristen rolls her eyes. “Dramatic much?”
