Oh, Marcel! 2

Thrift Store

~Ember~

“Today was really weird at work, Ember.” Emily began to pace back in forth on the creaky wood floor.

I had to agree with her it really was. The whole time I was in the church I just wanted to run out of there. Something was just…off.

“What was up with that bell? And what are we going to do about Tom not being there? Do you think we can get Marcel?” My questions flow out and I end up having to stop myself so Emily could reply to at least one.

“I don’t know the answer to any of those questions, but I do know that we need to find a way to sneak you into the jail.” Emily stops pacing and her brown eyes fix on me they seem to light up with an idea.

“What?” I press knowingly.

“We could get you a disguise. There was a little thrift store on our way to work. It was open earlier, maybe it still is.”

“Emily, she’s going to know its me, though.” I sigh, but hope that maybe this could work out.

“Come on. Let’s go right now.” Emily looks down at her phone as it suddenly begins to buzz in her hand. She quickly presses ignore and shoves it into her pocket.

“Who was that?” I ask wondering why she quickly ignored.

“It was just Bailey. I don’t want to talk to her right now.” She mumbles and walks to the door, grabbing her purse on the way. We had earned enough money to spend a little here and there while still saving to get Marcel out. Though it wasn’t anything close to the whole fifty thousand we needed.  

“Okay.” I say however, I really don’t believe her.

“Look! Here is a trench coat! You could be an undercover reporter or something!” Emily squeals as she brings the coat to my torso. It falls just over my knees.

“Maybe. Do you honestly think that your mom would fall for that?” I ask. Lately instead of calling her Officer Rossdale, we had just referred to her as Emily’s mom.

“She’s a dumbass.” Emily shrugs and folds the coat over her arm as she searches for other things. I mindlessly flipped through the clothes not knowing what to even look for. Emily knew what she was doing.

“Ah. Here we go!” Emily yanks a pair of black dress pants from the rack and holds them against my legs. “They’re a little big, but nothing that a needle and thread can’t fix.”

She tosses those over her arm too and begins to move down the rack searching through the sweaters.

“Go look for a hat. Preferably a fedora. You know something that says ‘I’m here for the news’.” She draws out her arm in the air, making a half circle.

“Okay..”

The hats are hung on pegs along the wall. Multiple baseball caps line them, one black fedora catches my eye. It was like it was meant for me to find. I scooped it up off the peg and tapped the sides lightly.

“I guess this is good.” I mumbled to myself while reading the piece of paper stuck above all the hats on the wall. Baseball caps were a dollar and all others were two. Seemed reasonable enough.

“Good. You’ve found one. I think that this will complete the look.” Emily says when I walk back over to her holding the fedora in my hands. In her hands she holds a pair of black kitten heeled shoes and a dark blue sweater.

“Try everything on in the dressing room over there.” She points to the curtained room and dumps everything into my arms.

The curtains on the small booth are holey and light pours through them. How very private. I sigh before pulling them open to a surprisingly clean wooden bench and a lamp in the corner.