Member-only story
When Two Walk
A modern reality
It was almost noon, just before 11:30 AM when the locals gathered underneath the shade of a banana tree. The Turners had not yet opened shop, so they waited.
From her wretched and poverty-stricken home, Mary watched the locals disgustingly. And though she had to sell, and the locals were there to buy, she was enraged nonetheless. She couldn’t bring herself to mingle or talk with them.
Not that, she’d forgotten why she and her husband had built the shop, but wished there was another way they could make more money that didn’t involve her dealing with the locals. But what was Dick thinking? He knows his wife was never good with them. Workers came and went like a woman’s monthly ritual. Either unable to please or put up with her. And when she could no longer fire them for fear of her husband’s wrath, she’d bark and howled insults until finally, they’d quit.
The fact that, though very aware of their plight, she hesitates to attend to her customers, shows how detached she is from her present reality. She couldn’t tell what tormented her the most — living on a farm or dealing with the locals.
Begrudgingly, she snatched the key from where it hung in the bedroom corner and made her way to the shop.
