Goal: Get clear of Mummi Conflict: Loss Prevention Disaster: Has to save her
After Mummi felt like she’d gotten the right bounty on her hunt, she took them both over to the checkout, her knees making her sway to each side with each alternate step. As the cashier started scanning the scant items from the shopping cart, she kept looking behind Happy and Mummi in line. As she picked up the socks, she looked directly at the tall man behind them before she scanned. Mummi couldn’t see him from her vantage but Happy could. He nodded and the checkout girl scanned the socks. She loaded their bags and wished them a good day.
Mummi went to grab the bag as Happy walked to the bag of the checkout aisle. As soon as she put the socks into the plastic shopping bag the man stepped forward and put his white hand on her chubby forearm. His other hand pulled out a paper badge and pointed it at her.
“Loss prevention, you need to come with me,” he said.
He put the badge away as quickly as he’d pulled it out. He held onto her while Mummi swung her neck towards Happy, her face in utter helplessness. Everyone knew they were together, he couldn’t get out of this.
“What’s wrong?” Happy said.
The man was tall and built straight up. He had the anxious energy of having drank 6 coffees in one morning. He looked Iraqi with small beads for eyes and 5 o’clock shadow. He looked like a creep.
“You’re with her, tell her she needs to come with me,” the man said.
Happy translated.
“Ask him what I’ve done,” Mummi said.
“Mummi don’t be an idiot. You know what you fucking did,” Happy said, gritting his teeth and speaking low in case another Punjabi was around.
The creepy man walked them to a nondescript elevator, which came just as he pressed the button. Upstairs, a dimly lit office hall led to his security office. Inside, there were a dozen cameras pointed at every section of the store. In one screen Happy saw a teller chatting with someone in electronics. In another, a kid was tantruming on the floor in the toy aisle. The desk in the room was triple wide, with enough room for 3 men at it. There was an empty diet Pepsi can with a can from an intense grip. The room smelled like musk and staples.
Offset from the desk, was another table with a chair on either side of it. The man sat Mummi on one side of his simple interrogation table. She breathed heavy, from the fast pace they’d walked along with her nervers. Happy was sat at a swivel chair near the cameras while the man took his place as inquisitor.
He turned to Happy.
“You can stay as long as you’re calm and cooperative,” the man said. He spoke as if Happy was a dog.
The fear in his mum’s eyes was palpable. He suddenly felt an urge to comfort her.
“Don’t worry it’s going to be OK, just answer his questions,” Happy said in broken English.
The man started. He dumped her bag onto the table and started picking items up and cross-referencing her receipt. He settled on the socks and the flimsyness of the package gave it away. He put his skinny hooks into it and pulled out the additional socks in a manner that made Happy sense this was more common a hustle than he thought.
“Did you steal these socks?” the man said.
Mummi turned to Happy.
“Happy, I don’t know what he’s saying.” Mummi said.
“I need to translate for her,” Happy said.
“It’s OK. It’s clear what she’s done. Can you tell her the police will be coming?” the creepy man said.
“What, why are they coming? It’s a pair of socks. They cost less than 5 bucks.” Happy said.
The man turned his attention to Happy. He pulled out a piece of paper and started writing in big letter unruled so Happy could see it.
“So she stole the socks, that’s 8. Then there’s the amount of my time that this investigation will take up: 100. So this isn’t a 5 dollar crime. This is a 200 dollar crime, which makes it very serious,” the man said.
‘What are you a lawyer?” Happy said.
“No I’m loss prevention. I make sure people like your mom don’t make this store go bankrupt. Now tell her about the police,” the man said.
Happy obliged. Mum sat with her head lowered while Happy examined the cameras. He’d been to this store many times and understood now that the camera’s didn’t go everywhere. He saw an employee go through some large swinging doors into the back warehouse and saw that there was only 1 camera in the whole warehouse. He couldn’t follow the employee until she came back out.
“Let me ask you a question,” the man said, knocking Happy out of his daze.
“Of course sir,” Happy said.
The man sat up straighter at the honorific.
“You saw me following you guys but you didn’t say anything. Why?” the creepy man said.
Happy shrugged and could sense the man’s curious slipping. He thought quick.
“I think she needed to learn a lesson,” Happy said.
Mummi watched them talk. She knew more than she let on in public.
“Oh really?” the man’s tone shot up, intrigued by this admission in the face of his power.
“Yeah, I always tell her stealing is wrong and a crime. But she keeps doing it because my dad is dead,” Happy said.
“Oh… how?” the man looked uncomfortable all of a sudden.
“He died of suicide, and left us with nothing to take care of ourselves,” Happy said, feeling glad he’d left his new shoes at home so they were less worn for school.
“I’m… sorry,” the man said.
“She’s never been to jail. Do you think I’ll be OK on my own. I think the cop may call social services on me. I may go to foster care,” Happy said.
“Um,” the man said.
”Besides the cop, what’ll happen to her?” Happy said.
The man snapped back into his script and pulled out some crisp forms from a intake tray.
“Well we make her sign this notice that she’ll get a fine in the mail she’ll have to pay, otherwise she’ll get a summons to civil court. It will be about $300 because they’ll add accounting fees at headquarters. And she’s banned from all Canadian Tire stores for 2 years, but you can always come to do any shopping instead,” the man said.
“Ok, that’s no problem. Can we please leave it at that? I can’t handle life on my own,” Happy said.
Tears welled in his eyes. He was faking but also not, as the situation was sad enough to warrant them,
There was a knock at the metal door into the security room. It was forceful and Happy recognized the timbre from the many times Daddi had been brought home. A police officer entered just as the creepy man cracked open the door ajar.
The cop entered, asian, over 6 feet tall and muscular. He looked taken aback when he laid eyes on the Indian mother and son crime duo inside.
“Thanks for coming, but it’s all taken care of. The store won’t be pressing charges,” the man said.
They were let out of the mall and walked towards the road heading home. Happy knew he had the upper hand now and Mummi couldn’t give him shit for being a criminal. She had a sort of record now too.