"Button it!" the woman says. The child ignores her and continues to complain that she is hungry and wants to eat the sweets. "You're not hungry," the woman says, pulling the packet of sweets from the child's hands. "You've just eaten." The child starts to cry.
"Can I buy those for you?" I ask, thinking perhaps the woman can't afford the sweets. She looks at me for a moment, her eyes sweeping me from head to toe and back again.
"Get lost, lady," she says. "Mind your own business."
I open my mouth to say something else, but the child starts laughing and chanting, "Get lost, lady! Get lost, lady!"
The other customers in the store look at me as though I have just tried to molest the kid or something. I turn away and make towards the counter.
"Do you want anything else?" the clerk asks, barely looking up from the phone he holds in his hands, after scanning the packet of biscuits I gave him. I tell him no, wish him a good day. He doesn't reply. I leave the store and wonder, not for the first time, why I bothered leaving my apartment today.
The wall of heat hits me in the face as I leave the air conditioning behind, and I begin to sweat immediately.
...
