Lisa led the way across the slushy lot and into the rear door of Sears. They cut through the hardware, paint, and household appliance sections and sped down the path of green indoor-outdoor carpeting to the indoor entrance of the mall itself.

As they walked into the huge dome-shaped area, Hannah’s eyes were immediately drawn to a giant red plastic sleigh and eight plastic reindeer frozen in midprance. She blinked twice and then she turned to Lisa. “It’s not even Halloween yet and they’re all decorated for Christmas!”

“They put up the decorations right after Labor Day. I guess a lot of people like to do their Christmas shopping early and they buy more if the mall’s decorated.”

“Has your father seen it yet?”

“I bring Dad out every Sunday. There’s an animated Santa’s Workshop in the lobby of Dayton’s and he’s just fascinated by it. He must have seen it a half-dozen times, but he always points out what all the elves are doing for me.”

“That must be the upside of Alzheimer’s. Every time your father sees it, he thinks he’s seeing it for the first time.” Hannah’s words popped out before she could think about them, and she winced when she realized that she’d sounded flippant. “I’m sorry, Lisa. I didn’t mean to joke about such an awful disease.”

“That’s okay, Hannah. You have to joke about it. I do it, too. And it could be a lot worse. Dad’s not in any pain and he’s forgotten about all his problems. Most of the time he really enjoys himself.”

“Where should we start first?” Hannah decided it was time to change the subject.

“Let’s go to Bianco’s. They’re new. Rhonda Scharf was in the other day and I heard her telling Gail Hanson that they had a better selection than any of the other shoe stores.”

Hannah followed Lisa through the crowd of shoppers without seeing a familiar face. That wasn’t surprising. The Tri-County Mall was twenty miles from Eden Lake and it served all the small towns within a forty-mile radius. She saw several teenage boys wearing Little Falls Flyer team jackets and a group of giggling girls, standing near the video store, were sporting Long Prairie High School sweatshirts.

Lisa ducked into a brightly lit store displaying the Italian flag as a background in its window. Rows of shoes lined the shelves on the wall, and every few feet a round plastic display shelf jutted out with a pair of shoes arranged at eye level. Hannah followed and she immediately spotted a pair of black shoes near the back of the store. They had low heels, they were probably made of leather, and they looked comfortable.

“I think I’ll take these, Lisa.” Hannah walked over to point to the pair of shoes. “They look just right.”

“They’re too plain, Hannah. You need something fancier to go with your gorgeous dress.”

“How much fancier?” Hannah wasn’t willing to cave in quite so easily. The black shoes would go with almost anything, and plain was fine with her.