"But Mommy, why won't you help that man?" Julia was pointing. Her mom had told her it wasn't nice to point, but how else was anyone supposed to know who you were talking about. The man she pointed at was sitting on the sidewalk with a cardboard sign. Julia couldn't read the writing. He had a dog.

Julia's mom grabbed her hand and adjusted Julia's fur trimmed coat as she hurried her along. Their coats matched. "Some people just can't be helped, Juley Dear. If you give them money they'll just spend it on drink. If they deserve help, the church will give it to them. Or they'll get a job."

She turned back to stare at the man as her mom pulled her along. "Mommy, I remember when I wanted a job but nobody would give me one. Maybe he wants a job but nobody will give him one."

Mommy stopped to look at some handbags in a window. They looked a lot like the one she was holding, but Mommy had a lot of handbags. She never let Julia play with them at home. "You were line leader at school last week, and didn't you say that it was your job to feed the fish next week?"

"No, Mommy, I mean back before. Before I was Juley. When I was a man like him and nobody would give me a job." Julia swayed and swung, hanging on to Mommy's arm. Looking at handbags in windows was boring.

"You have such the imagination, Dear. I'm sure somebody would have given you a job if you were willing to work hard. Come along." Mommy dragged her into the store. It was filled with more handbags, each on their own table. And more employees than customers.

The employees were all dressed in little black dresses. One of them greated Mommy. Julia stuck out her tongue. "And I was never allowed to go into stores. Not in the front door."

"What are you going on about now, Juley? Be still. I want to look at the new bag." Mommy said that last bit to the rest of the room and several of the employees started to scurry about. Mommy came here a lot.

"They wouldn't let me go in the front door or eat lunch or nothing. People were mean to me when I was a man. I don't know why. People are always nice to Daddy." Mommy was looking at the bag, so Julia just spun around in the middle of the room for a bit. One of the employee's smiled at her, but watched her carefully.

Mommy smiled. At the new handbag. "Oh, I'll take it. Just put it on the account. Come on now, Juley."

They walked back out onto the street. Julia screamed. Mommy turned to look at her and saw that she was pointing again.

"Stop that, Julia. Those are policemen, they are our friends." Mommy gave her a stern look.

Julia hid behind Mommy. "But Mommy, before, when I was a man. The police are the ones that killed me."

[More writing at r/c_avery_m]