New York, New York III: Spray Cheese

Please read New York, New York Part I & Part II before reading this story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bus pulled into the church parking lot after midnight. My mother breathed a sigh of relief  as I climbed down the narrow steps and into her spicy mustard-colored station wagon.

"How vas it?" she asked.

"I ate some amazing food, saw all the sites, and I bought you this!" I held up an overpriced "I Love New York" keychain.

"Oh, tank you, Stephie," she said, snapping the bawble onto her already large collection of keychains. "So, did anyvon try to bodder you?"

"Nope, I felt completely safe the entire time. It was awesome!"

"Vell, make sure you call Anita vhen you get home, she called like four times, I tink she had sometink to tell you, I dunno vhat."

I thought better of mentoning Anita's fear of Mole People to my mother.

I arrived back at the house and curled up on the bed with our old rotary phone that was the same exact color as my mother's station wagon. "Hey, Anita! Just calling to let you know that I am alive! What did I miss?"

"Oh. My. GOSH," she said....
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New York, New York II: Pepper Spray

"I can't belief you vould drag me up dis early for a stupid trip," my mother said as we walked towards the main entrance of the Middlesex Mall.

Even the security guard looked sleepy as he unlocked the doors and ushered us into the empty corridor. I however, was wide-eyed and bushy-tailed. I was going to go to New York! I imagined the smell of roasted peanuts and the sound of taxi cabs and newspaper boys. I smiled at the thought of walking through a city, arm-in-arm with my first love. For one day in my young adult life, I could stand tall without the sound of Anyu and Nagymama criticizing my outfit behind me. 

We assumed that we could pick up some pepper spray at the K-Mart, but we were out of luck. The K-Mart directed us to the 99 Cent store. 99 Cent store directed us to the Hardware store. The Hardware store looked promising - I walked up to the counter and saw the empty peg for pepper spray.

"I'm afraid we're out of pepper spray, dear," the attendant said. "There's been...
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