Working with a long-time customer, fussy with her so carefully stitched embroidery. We catch up on what’s happened in the time since she’s been here; yes, Jim is working now; no, I graduated school last May. Yes, he’s working back at xxx, the best part being the necessary benefits. Well yes, I would’ve gone back to work full time myself but no one would hire me. Pardon? Oh, it was in liberal arts in English. Maybe I can be a Walmart greeter, I sarcastically supply.
Moving on through benefits to diabetes, sugar, diet and cholesterol. Exchanging LDLs and HDLs in numbers–though neither one of us come out the winner. She’s older, but she hates to have accepted even four pills daily and she seeks from what I’ve told her, maybe another opinion or at least a dietitian to help her out. Me, no, I tell her, I don’t take any. I really would prefer to die a natural death.
She laughs, but the laugh is high and tinny in the air. I’d forgotten; she is older.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology