One

Jane and Shelley were on their way to pillage the grocery store. It was the hottest, most awful July week anyone in the suburbs of Chicago could remember. Jane, who was driving, had a long list of things to acquire. She'd planned out a whole week of cold salads for herself and her kids Mike, Katie, and Todd. Hearty, interestingly shaped pastas, lots of good veggies, hard-boiled eggs, tuna, and chicken to pile upon huge amounts of crisp, cold lettuce, accompanied by big pitchers of iced tea, a twelve-pack of V8, and soft drinks. Frozen fruit desserts. Even Popsicles.

It would only entail one miserable early morning of boiling and sautéing and running up the air-conditioning bill. Then she wouldn't do any real cooking at all until there was a relatively cool day.

"What was wrong with that space right in front of the exit door?" Shelley complained as Jane cruised the grocery store parking lot.

"A beat-up car was next to it. That's the sort of person you don't want to park next to. They don't care about the condition of your car because they don't care about their own."

"You don't intend to park way down the street, where we have to run the carts half a mile and then bring them back, do you?"

"Nope. See the space between the Mercedes and the Land Rover? That's where we want to be — next to people who care about their automobile's well-being."

When they came out of the store, each of them had four bags in her cart. They put them in the back of Jane's Jeep, which she'd equipped with a clear plastic sheet to prevent spills staining the carpet.

"Jane, you're more protective of this Jeep than you were of your children."

"Yes," Jane admitted.