Tonight Court decided he would just stop in here, grab a few more items to store at his place, listen to LaShondra talk for a minute, and then go home.

The rain remained steady as he pulled into his same spot in the parking lot, but it was no longer slamming down in whipping sheets. The loud thunder and lightning had abated as well, but he could still hear it rolling off in the east. He flipped the hood of his raincoat over his baseball cap, and he climbed out of the car.

As soon as he walked into the market he lowered his dripping hood, but he kept the cap down low. He knew the camera angles in here without looking, although he did perform a fast scan to make sure the broken cameras remained broken.

They hung there partially disassembled, just as before, so Court started for the refrigerated shelves.

He’d only made it a couple of steps before LaShondra called out to him. “Honey, ain’t nothin’ in this here place that’s worth comin’ out in this rain for.”

“Yeah,” he said. He walked to the dairy section with his head down, and he selected a pint carton of milk.

“You one of my regulars now. Three nights in a row.”

“Guess so.”

“I bet you came in just to tell me how good them greens were with vinegar. Ain’t that right?”

“That’s right,” Court said. Then he added, “They were really good.” In fact he hadn’t even opened the can yet, but she was a nice lady and he wanted to make her happy, and this seemed like the easiest way.

She squealed in delight. “I done told you!”

“You did.” Court smiled a little, glancing up at her over a low shelf of bread.

“You gettin’ you some more?”

He hadn’t planned on it. “Sure am.”

Court grabbed two cans of greens and started to turn away, then he scooped a third off the shelf before he began heading up to the counter. His little kitchenette had only one small exposed shelf over the sink; now that shelf would be lined halfway across with turnip greens.

He grabbed a loaf of white bread and some packages of ramen noodles, and he turned for the front.

At the register he kept his face angled to the left to position it away from the camera. He repeated his now-customary ruse, pretending to look down to the newspaper rack.

LaShondra started ringing up his items, and she continued talking about what Court had come to suspect was her favorite subject. “They good for you. Make you feel better. Hey, you look a little better than you did last night.”

“Feel a little better,” he replied.