Shop 'til Your Caught

Three years ago we were four Mexican girls with boxes of Pocky treats and overpriced stationary amazed that the neoprint machine had frames of Aztec pyramids and Mexican soccerball motifs instead of the usual happy smiling creatures. We posed and giggled while the machine took our picture. The marketplace's employees stared at us like we were all insane. One of the older Japanese women took off the uniform blue apron and slowly approached us. She looked nervous and probably didn't realize I saw exactly what she was doing: watching and waiting for us to steal, four brown girls out of place and loud. She fixed the same display over and over again and I clued in the other girls about what was going on. I announced to them loudly, Look, she is waiting for us to steal everything in sight. This time she was the one who was caught. She rushed back to her uniform and we just laughed and left.