To my horror, however, she waited by the front of the store while I went to the back. I'd bought things by myself before, but always small things like candy. And never anything where I had to engage someone as imposing as a store clerk and ask them to get the correct figurine out of the display case.

In the middle of pointing out the figurine to the clerk, I burst into tears. I got the wizard and paid for it, all with tears streaming down my face. My mother watched the whole thing from the front of the store, impassively.

The clerk, on the other hand, looked really freaked out.