In the present, the shopkeeper was digging through the storage supplies in back, grumbling. Mary stood over him, the pepper spray back out. He had hoped that the distraction with the other customers would have given him opportunity to find a way to deal with her, or at least slip out, but no such chance arose.
So here he was, trying to find one item his boss had only mentioned to him in passing and he had never actually seen, much less used. He could always lie to Mary and try to give her an item that would just similarly strand her, but he suspected the vengeful mother would have him test it with her. And he very much preferred remaining himself.
"What's taking so long?" Mary demanded, her anger only boiling over further as time passed.
The shopkeeper didn't reply, but a moment later came across the box marked "Return Policy". The shopkeeper hesitated. The boss would not be happy with him for this, but right now he was more concerned about the lingering burn in his eyes than the boss' wrath.
Still, maybe he could rush Mary, take her down before she used the spray. But no, then she'd just call the cops, and while there wouldn't be much evidence of her son, it'd still cast enough attention on the shop to get the shopkeeper even more in trouble with the boss. None of the items worked fast enough to force her to use, and the shopkeeper wasn't willing to try and outright kill her.
So with reluctance, he picked up the box, leading Mary back to the main part of the shop before opening it. If the dust coating its contents were any indication, it had probably gone untouched for quite some time.
