The two women met just past the Peace Bridge. Claire walked along the river where the weeping birches fed themselves in black, moist soil. Anna sat on a bench peeling an orange. Both women had strollers, the practical sort with deep storage pockets and sturdy wheels that could part snow. Not that they needed them. It was June and every inch of the park had thawed. The buds burst with the scent of cut grass beneath them.

Claire spotted Anna first, her gaze masked by dark sunglasses as she pushed her sleeping son across an empty promenade towards the bench. She parked her stroller feet first against Anna's, bumping it softly like a kiss before taking a seat. At first both women were silent as they watched the occasional runner and cyclist zoom by. Nothing but the thick skin of the orange lay discarded between them.

Anna stuck her thumb into the crown of the naked fruit, dividing it in half before extending a sticky offering to the woman who sat beside her. Claire nodded before leaning forward to look into Anna's stroller.

"Where is she?" she asked.

"I left her at my aunt's. She is getting too big for the stroller anyway," Anna answered before further subdividing the orange and taking a bite.

"Isn't that the point. We take the babies with us and avoid suspicion."

"The stroller alone seems to do the trick. Everyone has been smiling down at it and opening doors for me just the same."

"Eventually someone is going to wonder why you push an empty stroller to the park everyday."
Anna finished her orange.  "Do you have a wipe I can use?" She asked, extending her stained hands towards Claire.  

"Sure," Claire said, reaching down beneath her stroller and placing a heavy diaper bag on top of the orange peels between them.  

Anna in turn reached beneath her own stroller and procured a diaper bag identical to Claire's before dropping it heavily on the other side of Claire's. The contents of Anna's bag sounded like a rattlesnake in ascent, waking Claire's son.

"It's OK baby.  It's just mum's medicine," Claire said keeping her voice soft like a song, encouraging him to go back to sleep.

The women took each other's bag and placed it in their own strollers.

Anna could see Claire's frown through her sunglasses.

"What?" 

"It's just this one is heavier than the others."

"Don't worry about it, just take your cut and exchange the bag tomorrow. Helen will meet you at Bowness by the swings."

"The wipes are on top by the way," Claire said as she rose to take her leave.

"Just relax.  You've got the baby, you have nothing to worry about."

#Calgary Story, #Riverwalk #shady business