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Lisa looked down again and saw her mother turn in her direction, her hands resting on her hips.
"What you doin' just sittin' there?" Lisa could imagine her saying. "Girl, don't you know I'm waitin' for them things from the store?"
"Come on now, stupid. Get up," she told herself. "She's really gonna be mad if you don't get going quick!"
She walked on hurriedly, over the hill. The store was on the other side of town-past the big development of sturdy brick houses.10 The dirt path that she had been walking on there turned into a proper pavement11 with a sidewalk running along each side.
Every time Lisa walked through town she never knew whether she should walk in the road or on the sidewalk. She didn't want to be noticed. When walking down the clean, tree-shaded street she would always realize she had no shoes on and that she wore a faded dress and hat. Now she stopped and tried brushing some of the dust from her clothes. Seeing that this had no effect on the dull and dirty color of the dress, she gave a sigh and again started to walk. She glanced to her right at a tall three-story house with a big screened-in porch.12 It didn't have just one glass window in the front, but eight or ten. Here the grass was not brown, but green and short, and it was being watered by the spray of a sprinkler.13 Looking around, she saw no one and decided to wash herself in the water. Slowly she left the hot sidewalk and walked into the cool grass. A chill rose through her as she felt the dampness on her sunbaked14 feet. She reached the sprinkler, but as her toes touched the spray of water she heard a dog barking behind the house. Lisa ran to the sidewalk and started down the street. Glancing back, she saw the trail of her wet footprints on the sidewalk.
She walked another ten minutes before she reached the store. Lisa stepped inside and felt the air conditioning all around her.
"Wonder if they'd mind me spending the night here?" she thought, and then laughed. "Let's see-bread, sausage, lettuce. I guess that's all."
As she reached the cashier,15 she suddenly wondered, "Oh, no! Do I have enough money?"
"Seventy-two cents.'
She sighed and handed the man three quarters.
"Seventy-two out of seventy-five. Here you go-three cents."
"Thank you."
