LaRose by Louise Erdrich Read Free Book Online Page A

girls. Snow, Josette. The Iron Maidens. They were junior high volleyball queens, sister BFFs, heart-soul confidantes to each other and advice givers to their brothers. They were tight with their mom, loose with their dad. With their grandma they got bead-happy and could sew for hours. Snow was going to be the tall, intense one who had trouble concentrating on her schoolwork and whom boys only liked as a friend. She was in eighth grade. Josette was going to be the smart one who despaired about her weight but magnetized clumsy desire among boys whom she liked only as friends. She was in grade seven.
    Landreaux dropped his daughters in Hoopdance to shop and drove back to take Ottie to dialysis. The girls went straight to the one drugstore. They walked in with a puff of snowy cold. A store clerk with flat dyed red hair and glasses on a chain asked if she could help them.
    No thanks, said Josette, and you don’t need to follow us around either. We have money and we’re not going to steal.
    The woman pulled her chin down into her neck and kept this odd posture as she turned away and walked to the cash register.
    You didn’t have to say that, said Snow.
    Maybe I’m too defensive, said Josette, fake-meek. Attached to the drugstore was a gift shop full of decorative flowers and knickknacks, which their mother did not like. But they did. They went through and admired all the ceramic snow babies, the glitter fronds, the stones cut with words. Dream. Love. Live.
    Why not Throw? said Josette. How come they don’t have one that just says, Throw?
    You don’t get inspiration, do you, said Snow.
    That’s not inspiration, that’s mawkish.
    Ooooo! Snow licked her finger and made a mark in the air. Vocab word.
    They went back to the other section. There was a small selection of windshield scrapers and emergency flashlights, maybe for their dad.
    Better things at the hardware store, said Josette.
    Let’s test perfumes for Mom.
    No, lotion.
    You get that. I’ll get perfume.
    All of the good perfumes were locked up under the glass counter with the eyeglass lady’s hands resting on it.
    Shit, now we’ll have to deal with her, said Josette.
    I’m the good one, said Snow. I’ll do the talking.
    Josette rolled her eyes and made an oops face.
    Snow walked up to the clerk and smiled. How are you today? Snow used a bright inflection. We’re looking for a really nice Christmas present for our mother. Our mom is so special. Snow sighed. She works so hard! What do you suggest?
    The woman’s stabbing glare bounced off Josette, who was bent over the glass, scanning. The woman’s hand hovered among the jewel-bright boxes, spray bottles, and plucked up a tester of Jean Naté.
    Too white-bread, said Josette.
    Snow pointed at Jovan Musk.
    That doesn’t smell like Mom. She’s more, I don’t know, clear.
    Maybe Charlie, or Blue Jeans?
    So casual, though.
    They meditated, frowning, on the array.
    I wanna get something special. I have my job money, said Snow to the counter lady. Maybe something from a designer or movie star.
    The woman displayed a box. White Diamonds. Elizabeth Taylor.
    America’s number one fragrance, said the woman, reverent.
    Who’s Elizabeth Taylor? asked Josette.
    Duh, Cleopatra?
    They’d both pondered the cover of the VHS at the video rental.
    Plus friends with Michael Jackson?
    Oh yeah. Josette sniffed the spray nozzle. Fancy. I like this.
    Enjoli, in a hot-pink box, decorated with an embossed golden flower.
    But Mom’s not this spicy. I mean, she smells good.
    It would clash with Dad’s Old Spice.
    So would the Wild Musk?
    Maybe Wind Song.
    Grandma wears that.
    The woman behind the counter brought out an elegant box hiding behind the others. It was a lavendery pinkish box, one of those expensive indeterminate colors. A blackish gray band. The bottle fit firmly in hand, a band of embossed diamond shapes, neatly swirled glass. Eau Sauvage. The woman sprayed a little on a Kleenex, waved the tissue in front of their noses.