Where's Trixi?

The year Trixi and I turned ten we got caught shoplifting. I think most children shoplift at some point. I imagine most of them get caught. There was something unusual about Trixi and I though. We caught each other.

We had one tiny little mom and pop store in our neighborhood. The people that owned it were very sweet. No way should we have been stealing from them. But as usual we were two girls with one brain. Silky, our little radio dog, had run out of batteries and neither of our parents were willing to buy us new batteries.

I took a pack of batteries while Mrs. Louis was getting some guy a pack of cigarettes. I started to feel bad right away but some bizarre part of my brain thought that Silky would die without them so I ignored the shame and cut on out of the store.

I found Trixi on the same swing set where I had first seen her with her radio dog. She jumped guiltily when she saw me. "Hey." she said.

"Hey. Watcha doing?"

"Nothing. How about you?"

"Got some batteries for Silky." We locked eyes and we both knew. Three minutes later we were returning the batteries. We agreed to sweep the store for a week to make up for our abortive attempt at crime. One more way we bonded. God how I miss her.