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together. Now my parents yell about money, and I bite into my burger and chew slowly. If I 45
5
when they aren’t doing that, we are quiet. I walk, hold a bite in my mouth long enough, it softens
wondering if there’s stuffing anywhere in the mall. into something that feels almost like stuffing.
My second Black Friday, our store was While I eat, a woman drags a television in a box
doing pretty well, so there was a commission. to the table in front of me. She pushes a woman
You got something like 2.5 percent of all of your who is lying facedown in a small puddle of red
sales. It was a big deal for us on the floor. That blood out of the chair. Then she sits down. I
was when Wendy was sales lead. Which meant recognize her from the store. One of her ears
Redefining America
she had the highest sales goals. That year she’d looks like it’s been mangled by teeth; the other
brought in a pie for everybody. I made sure still has a large gold earring. Her gray scarf is
not to eat any of it because I don’t eat anything gone. But she’s wearing her new coat. When
anybody tries to shove down my throat, and I look at her, she hisses and shows her pointy
she couldn’t stop talking about the pie. “We can white teeth.
have Thanksgiving in the store! It’s homemade.” “It’s okay,” I say. “I helped you.” She looks at
Everybody was saying how nice she was, how me, confused. “Um, SleekPack, coal,” I say in Black
thoughtful. Then Wendy and I were the only Friday, pointing to myself, then back to her. The
ones who didn’t have the shits all day. creases on her face smooth. She relaxes into her seat
Who knows what she put in the pie. I made and rubs her cheek into the faux fur of the hood.
it my mission to beat her. And I did. I squashed “Good haul?” I ask. She nods hard and
her. Maybe it was because, thanks to her pets the face of the television box. “Family still
biological warfare, I had shoes, graphic tees, shopping?” I ask.
hats, plus denim to cover while she was stuck The woman dips her pointer finger into the
in PoleFace TM . Maybe it was because winter blood puddle in front of her.
was warm that year. Maybe it was that I’m the “Forty-two inches, high-def,” she says.
greatest goddamn salesman this store has ever This is the only time they can afford it. 50
seen and ever will see. But I squashed her. I’ve With a red finger she makes a small circle, then
been lead ever since. Wendy was gone by New points two small eyes onto the cardboard box, and
Year’s. I put the extra commission money toward drags a smile beneath the eyes. The blood dries out
some controllers for my GameBox. before she gets all the way across the face.
I make it to the food court where the smell “What?” I ask.
of food wafts over the stench of the freshly “Dead,” she says. “BuyStuy. Trample.”
deceased like a muzzle on a rabid dog. There are “Oh,” I say. “Right.”
survivors, champions of the first wave, pulling “She was weak. He was weak. I am strong,” 55
bags stretched to their capacity. Using the last the woman says as she pets the face on the box.
of their energy to haul their newly purchased It hardly smears at all. “Weak,” she repeats.
happiness home. And there are the dead, “Got it,” I say.
everywhere. I get two dollar-menu burgers, a I finish one burger, then I toss the second
small fry, and a drink from BurgerLand. The to the woman. She catches it, tears the paper
man at the cash register has seen so much and away, and eats gleefully. My phone moves in my
had so much caffeine that I have to remind him pocket and I grab it. I still have fifteen minutes,
to take money from me. Even as he takes it, he but it’s the store.
stares forward, past me, looking at nothing. I sit “We need you!” Richard screams.
at one of the white tables in the food court that “I just left,” I say, getting up and starting to
doesn’t have a corpse on it. walk.
58
Copyright © 2021 by Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample chapter.
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