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Knee-high Lies

By Dawn Ford

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Chapter 1
(Lie #1: The customer is always right.)

A

very Denton swiped the groceries across the Valley Market’s scanner with a practiced hand and smiled politely at Laura Jeffries who unloaded groceries onto the belt. Her two children, five-year-old Tyler and three-year-old Ella, fussed beside her.
She admired the widow, who shouldered the small community of Valley’s disdain after her husband’s car accident a year and a half ago. He’d been texting and driving. Not only had he died, but a passenger in the other car had been seriously injured. Many people blamed Laura for it.
Laura’s face was flushed. “Stop arguing you two!” She shuffled through her messy purse. “Sorry, my card is in here somewhere.”
Tyler yanked Ella’s doll from her hands. Ella’s shriek and subsequent crying drowned out the whirr of the store’s freshly oiled conveyor.
Mrs. Herman, who had just walked up to stand behind the family, tsked and planted a fist on her hip. A shopping basket with two small items dangled from her other hand. “Can’t you open another line? One that doesn’t take those cards?”
The sack Avery scanned crinkled as she fisted it a little too tight. There weren’t any other checkers. Their newest cashier hadn’t shown up, and Tom, who manned the customer service desk, was on one of his dozen breaks. Avery’s smile was tense. “Did you remember the milk this time, Mrs. Herman?”
“I don’t need milk today.” Mrs. Herman shifted the basket from one hand to the other as if the almost empty container held the weight of the world.
“How’s Mr. Herman’s diet going? Did he find the spinach yesterday?”
Mrs. Herman stopped and pulled out a list from her purse, a frown on her creased face. “Yes. But I forgot the dressing. I’ll be right back.”
Laura handed Avery her EBT card. “Thanks. I was ready to leave.”
“Don’t let her get to you. You’re just as important a customer as she is.” Avery bent down towards little Tyler who stood eying the display with Big Bob cards, his favorite. “You’re never going to get your good-boy reward if you make your sister cry. Better say you’re sorry.” She winked at him.
Tyler, looking properly chastised, hugged his mother. With a quiet, “I’m sorry,” he made up with his little sister, who sniffled and was as adorable as could be.
Laura gave Avery a grateful smile. She glanced down at her son. “Okay. But only this time. Next time you make Ella cry you won’t get your reward. And get something small for your sister while you’re at it.”
Face bright, Tyler clapped his hands and found the pack of Big Bob cards he wanted before grabbing a Pretty Princess sucker for Ella. He handed them to his mom.
Avery rang them both up while keeping an eye out for Mrs. Herman. She was as bad as her niece, MaKenzie, who had dumped a bottle of honey over Avery’s line yesterday.
“Thank you, Avery. You’re the only one who doesn’t make me feel like I should apologize when I come through the line.”
“I always wanted a big brother who would tease me. Being an only child is pretty boring.” Avery smiled down at Tyler, who clasped his cards happily to his chest, a broad smile on his face.
Avery’s heart twisted wistfully as she watched them leave. She longed for the times her mother had bought her things like that when she was little. Before. Now if it wasn’t in a bottle or eighty-proof, it didn’t get either of her parents’ attention. Although she’d told the truth that she’d always wanted a brother or sister, it was probably better she didn’t have any. It was enough having to take care of herself.
A smear of oil mixed with honey on one side of the line caught her eye. Avery bent down to find the can of disinfectant and paper towels to clean it up before it got on any of the customers and they complained.
Like Mrs. Herman.
Avery’s cell phone chimed, signaling ten minutes left of her shift. She bent down beneath the metal check stand to neaten it and dig a handful of plastic bags out of the cardboard case for the next cashier.
Perfume, familiar and expensive, tickled her nose. It flooded her first period biology class for the last semester of her junior year. The perfume, along with its wearer, brought mayhem and misery every morning, and that torture didn’t take a summer vacation. This day had been going too well. Avery should’ve known something would happen to ruin it.
It always did.
She stilled, keeping her head out of sight, one hand clasping the grocery bags tight, the other playing with the frayed strings on the hem of her khaki-colored jeans.
On the conveyor belt above came the tap, tap, tapping of a rude shopper.
“Earth to cashier. Earth to cashier. Cashier hiding under lane one.” Tom broadcast above her from the customer service desk.
“Jerk,” Avery whispered.
Avery stood up, and honey slicked her hand. She wiped it down her cashier’s vest, and noticed it was also on her pants. Pursing her lips, she sent Tom a dirty look at the desk a mere fifty feet from her cashier line. Tom answered her with a mocking grin.
MaKenzie Thomas, wearing a form-fitting, scarlet-patterned mini dress which blended well with her sun-fresh tan, stood with one manicured hand flipping a gold credit card onto the check-writing stand. Asia Maloney and Lauren Hughes stood behind her, completing the MaKenzie Thomas fan club.
MaKenzie’s green eyes narrowed as she judged Avery with a down-and-back-up glare. A blue, plastic basket, filled with bottles of flavored sparkling water, crab meat, salad greens, and specialty goat cheese crumbles, waited to be rung up on the conveyor belt.
Why her? Why again today? It had only been twenty-two hours since MaKenzie’s honey incident.
The alarm on Avery’s phone chimed. Five minutes left of her shift.
Avery drug the items across the scanner absently. “Find everything you needed?” The words slipped out from habit, and she bit the inside of her lip.
“No. This Podunk store doesn’t have what I need.” Lauren and Asia giggled. Scents of coconut and cocoa butter wafted from their sun-baked bodies.
Must be nice to lounge by the pool all day long instead of spending their summers working like she had to.
One of the items didn’t scan. Heat pricked Avery’s scalp. Something always went wrong when MaKenzie came through her line. She swiped it once more, nothing. Biting back a frustrated sigh, Avery picked the cheese up and input the numbers manually.
MaKenzie kept tapping the gold credit card on the surface beside the card reader. Avery hurried to finish, keeping her eyes down and away from the girl’s haughty gaze. The scanner double beeped. She hastened to delete the error.
More giggles. Avery glanced up to see MaKenzie raise her eyebrows at her. Lauren and Asia bent their heads together, whispering behind their hands.
“Will you hurry up?” MaKenzie’s voice could have been heard by the people filling gas at the station two blocks away. “I have my senior photo appointment tonight, and I have to eat, then get my hair and makeup done. Not that you’d understand how much work it takes to do a professional photo spread.”
Avery’s lips trembled and heat washed across her cheeks. She did have her senior photo appointment with MaKenzie’s cousin Cindy Herman, whom most seniors in Valley used as their default photographer. Default because there weren’t that many studios around Harrison County. So unless she went into Omaha, there were few options. And Avery couldn’t afford the bigger studios in Omaha like some people she knew.
She bit down a snide reference to MaKenzie needing help to be photogenic. She couldn’t lose her job. Not when her parents wouldn’t pay for her pictures like most seniors’ parents did. And she didn’t want to be the only loser in their class to have her photo taken by the brick wall in front of the school for the yearbook.
“Will that be everything?” Avery winced as she said it.
“Fresh crab would be nice. Or maybe some lobster.” MaKenzie flashed a perfect, ultra-white smile.
Avery leaned toward MaKenzie, locking gazes with her. “Check Reeser’s Bait and Gas Shop. They got in a batch of fresh crawdads last week. The best Iowa has to offer.” She smiled as the comment splashed over MaKenzie like acid over paint—all bubbling and hissing beneath the surface. “Your total is thirty-five seventy-two.”
The brunette slid her gold card through the reader and punched the screen with the tips of her gleaming, bejeweled nails.
The cash register screen beeped.
Avery cleared the screen and reset the transaction. “Try again.”
MaKenzie’s loud sigh caught Chantra Berg’s attention, and Avery watched as her manager stopped putting the carts back and stared at them.
Another slide of the card and the screen beeped again.
“I’m sorry. It’s not accepting the card.” A curl twitched at the corner of Avery’s mouth. Chantra stepped closer.
“What do you mean it’s not accepting the card?”
Was it Avery’s imagination, or was MaKenzie losing some of her aloof disdain?
“Maybe there’s something wrong with the bank, but it’s not going through,” Avery grasped the metal counter, bracing herself. “Do you have another card? Check? Cash?”
Lauren’s and Asia’s eyes were the size of Frisbees. MaKenzie stiffened, confused. A wrinkle marred her perfect forehead and quickly deepened.
“No, I don’t have another card. I don’t use cash. I don’t need to. Just put it on a tab or something.” Her brown curls swung with each angry shake of her head.
“I’m not authorized to make tabs for anyone,” Avery said as her boss walked up behind MaKenzie.
Lauren leaned over MaKenzie’s shoulder and spoke, “If it’s a problem with the card, you could call and ask your dad—”
“I don’t need to call my dad. The problem is her.” If possible, MaKenzie’s face grew darker, taking on a maniacal twist.
“What seems to be the problem?” Chantra’s words dripped like syrup, her forced smile over bright.
“Your employee doesn’t know how to run your credit card machine. Put it through again. There’s no way it’s denied.” MaKenzie’s green eyes bulged while spit flew from her glossy lips.
Avery bit her cheek to keep from spewing the ugly remarks that came to mind. She didn’t know why MaKenzie had it out for her, but it was obvious she wanted Avery to lose her job. Without a job, Avery couldn’t buy her senior pictures or afford necessities, like food and gas. And it wasn’t like there was an abundance of jobs she could apply for in this small town.
Not that MaKenzie would understand. Her parents took care of her.
“Let me try,” Chantra pulled out her management key and stuck it in the computer.
Once more the cash register screen beeped. “Maybe the reader is malfunctioning. Hand me your card.” Chantra’s hands shook slightly as she wrapped the card in a plastic sack and ran it through slowly.
Beep.
Chantra entered in the numbers manually.
Beep.
“There’s something wrong with the card itself. Let me print this off, have you sign it, and run it by your uncle to approve. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”
MaKenzie burned them both with a glare. “You should be.” She signed the slip of paper. “Get those.” She told Asia and Lauren before putting her sunglasses on and walking out ahead of them. The girls grabbed the bags and scurried after their leader.
Chime. Avery’s alarm went off. Her shift was officially over. “Thanks.” Avery said to Chantra.
She dug her key out of the computer. “Why is it every time Little Miss Prissy Pants goes through your line there’s trouble? Yesterday was the honey incident, and we had to pay someone to come in and clean out the mechanism under the conveyor belt. Jeff just got over that, and now I have to get him to sign this.” She held out the receipt.
Avery frowned, and rubbed the sticky spot on her vest. “The honey was MaKenzie’s fault. Even if it had been tampered with, she didn’t have to make a scene by pouring honey everywhere.” She unbuttoned her vest. “MaKenzie hates me. I don’t know why, but since the day I moved here she has gone out of her way to target me.”
“You know as well as I do the customer, especially that customer, is always right. It would be nice if you could figure your issue with MaKenzie out without having to involve me. I have to keep this job, you know. Three kids and my ex is late with his check. Again.”
“Believe me. If I could, I would. Anyway I have to clock out, my shift is over.” Avery headed toward the employee break room.
Chantra grasped her arm. “Hey. Can you stay tonight? Alyssa Durand called in, and no one else can come in to cover.”
Avery slumped. The only night she had something planned and it figured someone would call in. “I covered yesterday until close. Katie and I are going shopping. Our senior pictures are this Friday.”
Chantra took Avery’s elbow and headed by Tom at the customer service counter and past the carts. Avery clomped behind her, staring at the bobbling peroxide curls piled on top of her manager’s head.
“Look, Avery, you’re the only one who ever stays. Just give me another hour. I promise I won’t ask again the rest of the week.”
Tom’s voice crackled above them on the loudspeakers. “Berg line one. Berg line one.”
Chantra twisted, facing the customer service desk. “Tom, I’m right here. You don’t have to announce it over the intercom.”
He grinned.
Turning back to Avery, Chantra muttered, “If he wasn’t the boss’s son…” She clasped her hands in front of her face. “Pretty please, Avery. I promise you won’t regret it.”
“Fine,” Avery said. “But, only because I need the money. And only for an hour.” She reset the alarm on her phone while Chantra left to answer the call.
Back at the checkout line Avery came face to face with Michael Carter—Katie’s brother—and his friend, Jaxson Stewart.
“Sneaking candy into the movies again?” She teased them. Jaxson, the taller of the two, wore cowboy boots, dark jeans, a plaid shirt, and a baseball cap. He grinned while placing several items on the conveyor belt.
A blush, red as his hair, crept across Michael’s face.
“Do me a favor. Call your sister and let her know I’m going to be late. I’d call her myself but daddy’s boy is watching me like a hawk.” She nodded toward Tom as she bagged their items.
“Oooo. Going out on a date?” Jaxson handed her a crumpled ten dollar bill. His fingers brushed hers when she took it.
Startled, Avery glanced up at him. Under a swath of blond bangs were sweeping dark blond lashes and gorgeous blue eyes. Her pulse skipped in her veins when she handed him the change. She took a deep breath before answering. “Nope. Just shopping.”
Jaxson smiled crookedly, winking at her as they left.
Avery rubbed her hand, eyes trained on the tall farm boy. Somehow he seemed older today than usual. And much cuter.
“I have a coupon for this.” Mrs. Smith’s words startled Avery.
Mechanically, Avery scanned Mrs. Smith’s groceries, but the thrill of touching Jaxson’s hand played over and over in her mind.
***
Rock dust chased Avery’s car on her way home from work. Thanks to MaKenzie’s honey escapade, she needed to change before going shopping with Katie. Her mother’s car was parked in the driveway when she pulled in. Avery braced herself; it was never a good thing when her mom or dad was home before six p.m. She had to hurry, though, or they’d never get any shopping done.
Luckily, her mother was nowhere in sight when she entered the two-story farm house, so she headed upstairs to change. However, when Avery went back downstairs, her mother sat at the dining room table. An almost-empty bottle of wine sat in front of her.
“How was school today?”
“School’s out, Mom. I was at work.” Avery held her car keys in her hand. She hesitated long enough to know her mother was on a bender again. Her bloodshot eyes weren’t completely focused when she glanced up at Avery.
“Work? Work shtunk. Thanks for ashking.” She took a slug out of the wine bottle and wiped her mouth off with her arm. “Lost a,” her mother burped, “dips to Sydney.”
The dips, prime land in Harrison County within the Loess Hills, meant a six-figure sale. And her mother had lost out on it to her real estate office’s new saleswoman. Her dad was going to go through the roof again.
“Great. I’ve got to go.” Avery slid past the table and headed toward the front door.
“Notsofast.” Her mother’s words slurred. “Where’n you going?”
Avery pushed her impatience back. Talking to her mother when she’d been drinking was as effective as screaming against the wind, and Avery didn’t have time for it today. Besides, only Avery would remember it the next day.
“Bye.”
“I said wait, young lady. Who’n you goin’ with?” Her mother sat up. She was moving from inquisitive drunk to angry drunk in record time.
“Katie, Mom. I’m shopping with Katie.” The less information the better.
She tried to stand but couldn’t. “Not with that kind of attitude. You don’t just traipse all over willy-nilly.”
“I’m NOT, Mom!” She glanced at the clock on the wall before remembering it needed a new battery. She had to get out of here.
Her mom tried to stand again. “Yesh you are. Gimmeyerkeys.”
Avery turned to look straight at her mom. It had been a week since she had to do this last, not bad for her life. “Mom, Aunt Penny gave me my car. It’s not yours. You can’t take the keys because I’ve done nothing wrong. You’re drunk and I have to go.”
With a hand swifter than Avery would’ve guessed, her mother smacked the bottle down on the table. It was a miracle the bottle didn’t shatter. “You’re a spoiled rotten brat, you know that?”
Irritation and impatience warred inside Avery. Why did everyone choose to be difficult today? “Yes, I know. Goodbye.”
“You’ll listen to me while you live under my roof, young lady!”
“It’s only your roof because Aunt Penny left it to you in her will. I’ve gotta go. Bye, Mom.”
“You h—hate me, don’t you?”
And her mother had come full circle. Inquisitive, angry, and then sorry for herself. Avery cursed MaKenzie in her mind, and wished she had never stopped home to get changed, honey or no honey. “Yes, mother. I hate you. If you were to fall off the face of the planet it wouldn’t hurt my feelings right now. Are you happy?”
“No!” Her mother wailed. Tears fell down her face in rivers. “My daughter hates me.” They looked like real tears, but Avery knew better.
Years ago she would’ve reassured her mother that she didn’t hate her. But that wasn’t really the truth now. She did kind of hate her mother for what she’d become. She thought back on Mrs. Jeffries, who single-handedly took care of her kids. It had been years since her mom had taken care of her, and now it was the other way around. Yes, she despised what her mom had become. She wanted her old mother back.
She remembered the mom who taught her how to bake chocolate chip cookies, who took her shopping and tried on funny looking hats, or who put a band-aid on a cut and then kissed it to make it better. But she couldn’t muster any empathy toward the pathetic, broken shell of a woman sitting at the table in front of her.
Aunt Penny used to tell her that God didn’t give up on anyone. She shook her head. She loved her Aunt, but she had to disagree. God had already given up on her mom. And if God hadn’t, she had.
Avery turned around and left.

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