I met Virgee when I first came to the store. I was six then and I still hadn't had the talk beat out of me. I loved her immediately though she did not know this. Her face was so pale as to be translucent and her black hair circled it in a bob. More importantly, she looked to be my age and was wearing overalls. She was one of two kids I saw in the hardware store the whole time I was there, and I met her on the first day.
She was there in the foyer, sitting by the coke machine when I walked in behind Daddy. He was holding my hand and dragged me past as she jumped up and smiled.
'Hi'�, she said.
But daddy pulled me on, so I just waved and followed him in.
'Daddy,'� I said. 'Who is that girl?'�
He walked on, looking over the dented shelves which held his merchandise.
'Daddy!'�
'What?'� he said, peering toward the nail bin. It was one of those old kind: a tall upright post was the pivot for 4 tiers of deep revolving metal bowls, each partitioned into 4 bins. I could barely reach the third bin at the time, but I was a short boy.
'Who is that little girl?'�
'What little girl?'� He still had not looked at me.
'The little girl back there by the coke machine.'�
'What are you talking about?'�
'Daddy, the little girl by the coke machine when we walked in. Who is she?'�
Finally he looked down at me. 'Son, I don't have time for this. Please go somewhere and play.'�
'But daddy it's dark outside.'�
'Then play inside.'� I recognized a certain menace in his voice.
'Ok,'� I said, looking around my feet. I had the sensation I'd lost something, as if there were a hole in my pocket.
'What?'� he asked. I had his attention now.
'Yes, sir.'� I said, looking up.
'That's better.'� And he turned away.

Virgee was still sitting there when I walked back. The foyer had a set of doors on either end, so I closed the inside doors and walked over. She was looking at me with that same smile, her eyes looked too large to fit properly in her head.
'Hello,'� I held out my hand like people do at church. 'My name is XX.'�
She kept smiling. 'I'm Virgee.'� she said.
'That's a strange name.'� I replied.
'Well'� really it's Virginia, but that sounds snooty doesn't it? At least, that's what my friends said. My dad said it means I'm a good girl though. What do you think? I like Virgee better.'�
'I like Virgee too.'� Her hand was cool like wet grass in the morning. 'Do you live near here?'� I asked.
'Uh,'� a confused expression was on her face as she looked away and then back at me. 'What do you mean by live exactly?'�
'Well, uh, where is your house?'� I asked.
'I'm kind of staying here right now,'� She said.
'But this is my dad's hardware store,'� I said, confused.
'Oh, I don't think he'll mind really. The others are much noisier. He'll notice them before me.'�
'What others?'� I asked. 'Are there other kids here?'�
'No'� not really.'� She looked at me thoughtfully and her eyes sparkled although there was nothing happy in them. 'I thought it was a game, but you don't know what's going on here anymore, do you?'�
We stared at each other while I thought about this a minute.
'What do you mean, anymore?'� I finally asked.
She leaned closer and with an earnest look whispered, 'Sweetie, I'm dead.'�

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