Financial Aid

Chapter 4
Fate

Chapter Description: Ben and his mother go shopping.

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“Mom?” Ben asked, trailing slowly behind his mother who was pushing the shopping cart.

“Yes, honey?”

“What’re we doin’?”

“We’re shopping for YOU, of course,” she said, smiling down on his perplexed cherubic face, “we have to stay out of the house while the movers I hired redecorate! When we get back, we’re going to have lots of fun, okay?”

“Otay, mom.”

“Are you still mad at your mommy?” she inquired, stopping the cart and allowing the toddling child to catch up with her.

Ben didn’t answer. She figured it would still take a little more time. As she started moving again, she noticed Ben was tripping over his own shoes, which were now flopping around loosely on his feet which struggled to keep up with themselves.

“C’mere, you!” she yelled, swooping up her son easily with her hands and depositing him in the child-seat in the front of the cart. She buckled him in with the red plastic buckle.

“Mommy?”

“Yes, darling?”

“Can you hewp me?” he asked sheepishly, tugging at the buttons of his shortalls, “I have to go to the bathwoom.”

“Sure thing, baby, can you hold it?” she veered the cart down a new aisle of the store, and grabbed a few items she figured she would need for later: a plastic mat, a fluffy yellow pad with ribbon-wearing ducks on it, a box full of sanitary wipes and a package of Pampers-brand disposable diapers.

As she went to leave the aisle to go towards the women’s bathroom, she pulled the cart back and picked up a small blue rattle and some other assorted baby toys for his inevitable return to infancy. As she reached for baby oil and powder, Ben shifted uncomfortably in the front of the cart. She placed the items carefully in the cart behind Ben’s back.

“Just one more minute, sweetie, we’re almost to the bathroom,” she assured him, placing a few more items silently in the car, hoping Ben wouldn’t see. She didn’t want to upset him.