“Your brother’s in a lotta trouble up front,” she said.

Thomas turned to look at her. “What’s the matter?”

Miss Hester smiled at him in that way she had, like a man.

“He put a order in the wrong car.”

“Did the people bring it back?”

“Yeah,” she said. “But some folks is still missin’ their groceries. They’re out there now mad as hell.”

“Was it Eddie lost them?”

“Yeah. Miss Sarah is mad as hell. Everybody’s standin’ round up there.”

He looked through the glass window and up the produce aisle and saw his brother coming toward him from the front of the store. His brother was untying the knot in his blue smock when he came in the swinging door of the air-conditioned produce room. His brother did not speak to him but walked directly over to the sink next to Miss Hester and began to suck water from the black hose. He looked very hot but only his nose was sweating. Thomas turned completely away from the window and stood facing his brother.

“What’s the matter up front, Eddie?” he said.

“Nothing,” his brother replied, his jaws tight.

“I heard you put a order in the wrong car and the folks cain’t git it back,” said Miss Hester.

“Yeah,” said Eddie.

“Why you tryin’ to hide back here?” she said.

“I ain’t tryin’ to hide,” said Eddie.

Thomas watched them and said nothing.

“You best go on back up front there,” Miss Hester said.

At that moment Miss Sarah Feinberg pushed through the door. She had her hands in the pockets of her blue sweater and she walked to the middle of the small, cool room and glared at Edward Brown. The door continued swinging back and forth and making a clicking sound in the time she stood there, silent, short of breath and angry. Thomas dropped a half-filled bag of potatoes down into the cart and waited with his brother.

“Why are you back here?” Miss Sarah Feinberg asked Edward.

“I come back for some water.”

“You know you lost twenty-seven dollars’ worth of groceries up there?”

“It wasn’t my fault,” said Eddie.

“If you kept your mind on what you’re supposed to do this wouldn’t have happened. But no! You’re always talking, always smiling around, always running your mouth with everybody.”

“The people who got the wrong bags might bring them back,” Eddie said. His nose was still sweating in the cool room. “Evidently somebody took my cart by mistake.”

“Evidently! Evidently!” said Miss Sarah Feinberg. “Miss Hester, you should please listen to that! Evidently. You let them go to school and they think they know everything. Evidently, you say?”

“Yeah,” said Eddie. Thomas saw that he was about to cry.

Miss Hester was still smiling like a man.

Miss Sarah Feinberg stood with her hands in her sweater pockets and braced on her hips, looking Eddie in the face. Eddie did not hold his eyes down and Thomas felt really good but sad that he did not.