The Ruvy Rose Report: A Trip to Target

 

 

         I usually stretch out on the car's back seat while Mommy shops. Daddy, her driver, stays in the car with me. But, on the Saturday before Christmas, he needed to go shopping with Mommy. My parents debated what to do with me. Leaving me in the car was out of the question; I am too valuable for that. I thought I would be left behind when Daddy pulled River's backpack out of the closet.

         River had told me about it. She wasn't good about riding in the back seat like me, insisting she be upfront with her people, which is why on the rare occasion River went with my parents, she was stuffed in the cramped bag, a fate that awaited me if I elected to go with them.

         I voted yes.

         As Daddy drove, I wished I could stretch on in the seat. At the first stop, the bag with me inside was taken out of the car, placed in a shopping cart, and then wheeled into the busiest place on Earth, a department store, a week before Christmas.

         It was a brightly lit place where people desperately shopped for gifts, not in a "Christmas Carol" sort of way, but like a Mad Max Christmas. I knew I needed to protect my parents. I remembered River showing me how she used her thick head to burst through any cage or bag that held her.

         It may be a Griffon thing because I pressed my head on the opening until my head popped out like a Xenomorph. I was in the food section, and there was enough to feed the city. People were either quickly grabbing products like they were jumping on a fumble or studying identical items like they were in a spot in a different game. Were the robots unable to see anything but their target? Is there where the name came from?

         We walked by shampoos and deodorants, televisions and computers, dolls and games, a child smashing a toy gun on the round to free it from its packaging, and several prominent women in slippers and sweatpants, blocking the aisles, probably shopping for people who got bargain robots.

         Finally, we got in a slow-moving line, and then Mommy gave her the card to take the things without paying any money. Then we went out of the store. I was removed from the bag and carried out like a treasured purchase. The bag was thrown in the trunk, and I lay on the back seat, exhausted.

         I had enough of Christmas shopping.

         From now on, I will only buy things from the store on Amazon's banks.