Trisha woke up early that Saturday. A letter from her mother sat by her bedside.
Trisha,
Could you stop by the grocery store and pick up some ham and eggs for me? Thank you.
Love,
Mom
Reluctantly, Trisha pulled herself out of bed and got ready to leave.
"Look, all I want is a half a pound of ham."
"But what type of ham? Honey, low fat, black forest, smoked, or turkey ham?" The woman behind the counter continued listing off types of ham.
"Just give me whichever one you think is best."
"Well, the honey is sweet, but the black forest is really nice as well. The low fat is much healthier and it’s really your preference.”
Trisha sighed in exasperation. Who would have thought getting ham would be so difficult. A woman with long blonde hair walked up to the counter. "Excuse me. I couldn’t help but over hear your conversation. And, if it’s okay for me to suggest, I really think the honey ham is best." Trisha looked at this woman. She had no idea what a savior she had been for "over hearing" the conversation.
"Great!" Trisha smiled. "Just get me a half a pound of that." She turned to the woman. "Thank you so much. I never would have thought it’d be so difficult just to get some meat. I hope it’s not as hard to buy eggs." The woman just smiled and nodded.
"Mommy, can we get donuts? I want a donut." A little boy tugged at the pants his mother wore.
"Mackie, if I get you a donut then you can’t have McDonalds."
The little boy seemed to contemplate this idea, before singing some song about McDonalds. Trisha smiled and left. I probably shouldn’t have listened to their conversation, oh well.
"What do you mean you can’t accept my check? This is my account. I’m 18 years old. Why do I need to have a parents signature?"
Things were not going her way. The young cashier stood before Trisha telling her that she needed her mother’s signature or else she couldn’t take her check.
"Of all the stupid, screwed up things. Look, fine, I’ll pay in cash. Hopefully you don’t need a signature for that."
"No ma’am."
She dug into her pockets. "Um…what was the total again?"
"7 dollars and 36 cents, ma’am."
"Oh shit. This is so not my day. Look, I’m like five dollars short so let me run home and then I’ll come back and buy this stuff."
"Wait. Here, I have five dollars." Trisha turned to look back. An aggravated young man stood there. He obviously wanted nothing more than for her to leave. She accepted his extended 5 dollar bill. She then waited for him to pay for his things.
"Excuse me. I’d really like to thank you for loaning my that money. Can I please pay you back though? I’d feel really guilty if I don’t. Let me just write you a check. Even though the store didn’t like them, they’re good, I promise."
He smiled at her rambling. "It’s okay, you don’t need to pay me back."
"But I’d feel horrible if I didn’t."
"Well I’d feel horrible if I didn’t take you out to dinner tomorrow but I guess we’ll both have to deal with our guilt and regrets."
"How about I pay you back over dinner?" Trisha smiled. He used a well worn pick up line, that certainly wasn’t that creative, but he made it seem genuine.
"Meet me at the Olive Garden downtown?" He smiled back.
"Yeah. At 6?"
"At 6." He smiled and left.
Main Page
Story Page
Song 5
Song 7
E-mail me with comments or suggestions
