Page 34 - San Diego Woman Anna Adams
P. 34
Temporary friend,
permanent scar Just One More Thing
his phone rings with an ominous tone,
one that seizes on intuition or premonition
when bad news flows digitally By Ava Lepor
from the other end
“he’s dead,” she says, It is five-thirty on a peaceful “Just one more thing,” says Mari-
“curled up like a ball on the street, summer afternoon at the Fresher anne. “I could do with a honeydew.”
he always spoke kindly of you Fields Food Market. Seventy-nine- The boxboy returns with a large
so I thought you should know” year-old Marianne Harper pulls her honeydew melon for Marianne.
cart up to the checkout line. Inside “Okay?” says Alix as she rings up
a natural end, he thinks, her cart, there’s a bottle of goat milk, the fruit. “There are three customers
for the street dealer he met long ago
low-hanging fruit a bar of milk chocolate, and a head behind you, ma’am. Will you be on
the lowest of iceberg lettuce. She places her your way now?” She smiles politely
a middleman’s middleman items onto the conveyor belt. at Marianne and at the increasingly
as the hierarchy goes Alix, the pert, young cashier, perturbed blue-haired customer
humping to feed his own appetite asks, “Did you find everything you waiting behind her.
needed today?” “On my way, you say?” says
transactional, “I thought so,” says Marianne, Marianne. “That reminds me. Just
that’s how the relationship began, “but now that you mention it, there’s this morning, my scale showed I
the weekend rendezvous for replenishment just one more thing.” weigh three pounds more than I did
until that night
when his ears attached to the dead man’s words “What else do you need?” asks last week! I think I ought to get some
of fantasy and conspiracy Oscar, the box boy. “I can run over diet food.”
conscripting them to a bond of unlikely friendship, and get it for you.” “What did you have in mind?”
until becoming his sometime shelter “Well, I just remembered my Oscar inquires. He’s already getting
when the dead one had none, sister-in-law telling me that dark into better shape himself, helping
his source of nourishment chocolate is healthier than milk this lady. He considers canceling his
when the dead one was famished, chocolate. But I prefer milk choco- gym membership.
late, so it’s a tough decision.” “How about watercress?” Mar-
his ambulance driver “Why don’t you just get both?” ianne says. “Oh—and some sauer-
when the dead one was ill,
his chauffeur suggests Alix. “Would you like Oscar kraut to sweeten the deal.”
when the dead one needed his dope to get you a bar of dark chocolate?” “Sure thing!” Oscar bounds over
“Oh, yes, I’d appreciate that,” says to the veggies as Alix avoids eye con-
until the day Marianne. tact with the blue-haired lady.
he no longer answered the dead one’s call Oscar makes a dash for the dark “Excuse me,” says the blue-
and ignored the messages and brings back two bars. haired customer to Marianne,
of need or deal making “I wasn’t sure if you wanted the “Would you please speed things up
because knowing the dead one plain dark or the peppermint dark already? I don’t have enough free
became inconvenient, chocolate, so I got both, just in case.” time for all your free association.”
complicated,
as he resorted to simpler transactions “Oh, thank you!” says Marianne. “What do you mean, free?” says
no strings, “Sometimes you feel like the refresh- Marianne, “I’m paying for every-
only the high ment of peppermint. On the other thing in my cart.”
hand, sometimes you don’t. I guess The blue-haired woman rolls her
yet it only left him to wonder I’ll take both to be on the safe side.” eyes.
how he was “Great!” says Alix as she rings up Behind the blue-haired woman,
when the thought of the dead one the additional chocolate bars. “Will a four-hundred-pound sumo wrestler
left a bitter taste of guilt, that be all?” waits with fifty pounds of white rice
only to hear now “All?” asks Marianne. “That in his cart. Behind the sumo wres-
he was found dead lying in the street,
curled up like a ball, reminds me of almonds. My grand- tler, a slightly balding, bespectacled
but now burrowed under his skin daughter won’t drink dairy milk. I gentleman in his sixties waits with a
permanently, really should have almond milk on bouquet of twenty-four red roses.
smothered in regret hand for when she stops by.” “Yes, dear,” says the gentleman to
“I can get it for you,” offers his phone, “Of course I remembered
Reflections from the Edge, Collected Poems", has an Oscar. He runs over to the dairy-free our anniversary. And wait till you see
anticipated release date of Spring, 2025, and will be aisle. He returns with a carton of the surprise I’m bringing home!”
available on Amazon. Current inquiries may be sent almond milk. Oscar returns with the water-
to the author at dom.gagliardi@cox.net. “Will that do?” says Oscar. cress and sauerkraut.
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