They arrived at the mall and spent a few hours perusing the stores and Jackie bought quite a few items. Janine walked around lazily and had a hard time focusing on shopping. By the time Jackie was hungry for lunch, Janine had purchased absolutely nothing and had barely looked at anything. Jackie was more than a little concerned about her mother now, but she knew her mother's character. If Janine had wanted to talk about something, she would have said it. Jackie figured the best thing to do was ignore it. They shared a relatively quiet lunch, with Jackie doing the lion's share of the sparse conversation. It was late in the afternoon and they were both tired as they made it back to the house. Janine felt nearly sick from her inner torment but still she could not manage to broach the subject
