Page 9 of Adventures In Honeymooning

Sitting on the floor—yeah, gross I know, but a girl’s gotta do what she’s gotta do—I start going through the papers I have left. I try to put them in some kind of order. They are separated by boy or girl and in order of age. I get up, groan, and check the ones I’ve already done. I tape the papers to the toys to ensure I don’t miss anyone. I also write on the back of each paper what I got in the event the papers come off.

“Mara!”

I jump at the sudden shout of my name. “Jesus, Brenna. I’m here.” I turn to see her and boy wonder coming down the aisle.

“Whoa.” Abel looks at the baskets then me.

“This is your brother's fault.” I grin. “Ready to buy stuff?”

“Hell yeah.” I hand Abel the papers for the boys and a pen. “Here’s what they like. Make sure it’s age appropriate please. Use this tape to tape this paper to the toy you find. Also jot down on the back of this paper what you get in case the paper comes off.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“He looks excited about shopping.”

“Seems he has a heart, who knew?” Brenna says, fighting back a grin.

“You’re the one with no heart, Grinch. Here, you and I can tackle the girls.”

“What brought this on?” she asks, her eyes meeting mine.

“Noah mentioned the tree of names. He asked me to pick up two toys for the two names he pulled. I can’t explain—I just had to do this.”

Brenna hugs me and after a shared smile, we divide and start shopping again. I can hear Abel exclaim before he comes around the end of the aisle.

“Babe! Babe, look!” He holds up a pirate ship Lego set. I shake my head, grinning. I’ll leave the big child to his girl.

“We are here for the kids, babe.”

“I know, but look, this is fucking epic.”

“Hey, language. There might be kids around.” I shake my head again.

“Oh, yeah, sorry.”

Brenna walks him back to the other aisle. I pull down a talking baby and add it to the basket, taping the paper to it as I’ve done with the others. In the process of doing so, I have three women stop me and ask what this is about. I guess the time spent here and the number of baskets, which is now four, is garnering a lot of attention.

They each wear a blue Wal-Mart polo, so I explain what we are doing. They are all smiles when they leave my side. Twenty or so minutes later they come back over, their manager in tow.

“Ma’am, these ladies and I would like to help you with this endeavor. We’re in the process of taking up donations. When you’re done, please go to check-out line 14. Ana and Carson will be waiting to help you check-out and use the donations to help with this.”

To say I am a sobbing mess by the time Brenna and Abel come back around to where I am—well, let’s just say I am a hot mess of tears and snot. It takes me a few minutes to get myself together so we can finish with the last few items.

We make our way to the front of the store and to the check-out lane that is closed until we get close.

“Abel, keep the tree basket back. I’ll pay for that separately.”

“Sure thing.”

I start unloading the toys. With the last discount taken off, the total is $1,984.65. I smile, reaching out to hand the checker, Ana, my credit card.

“I need to take the donations off. One moment.” She takes the cash the manager hands her. As she counts, my heart melts a bit more. They’d raised a good chunk of money in less than an hour. I have to wipe tears away as she enters the cash amount.

“With the $208.00 off your total, it’s now $1,776.65.”

“Thank you all so much. I know these sweet babies are going to love that everyone was thinking of them today.”

After paying, I hand Brenna my keys, and she leads three workers with full buggies out to the cars. I pay for my other purchases, and Abel helps me get them out to the SUV. It takes some maneuvering and arranging, but everything fits in my SUV.

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