Wednesday was shopping day. Sarah carefully divided her pension into four equal parts and spent each quarter at a different local grocery store each week. She understood the value of thrifty living in a way few others ever could. Sarah loved cheese and it was the one luxury she always indulged in.
Sarah bought dried vegetables, minute noodles, canned beans, tuna and fresh fruit. Then it was time for cheese. Just the aroma of the sharp cheddar was enough to make her sing, she hummed as she delved through the assortment on offer, choosing a mature, bright yellow wedge. What bliss, she could hardly wait to be out on the street with her bags in tow to savor her delight.
Sarah waited patiently in line to pay for her purchase. She knew that her bedraggled clothes, her dusty hat and bags were a dead giveaway to her status as a street woman of valueless repute. She knew that people whispered about her in low tones; some stared at her as if she had just alighted from a spaceship, but she was just poor and she knew her place so she always kept her distance.
Sarah waited. A commotion broke out at the head of the queue. A security guard had wrestled a boy, a teenager really, to the ground. The man prized a notepad, pen, a chocolate and a box of frozen pizza from the boy’s jacket. He had the cuffs ready, but the manager, an obviously sensible man, stepped in to stop the foray. The manager yanked the kid up by his collar and frogmarched him to an office at the back of the store.
Sarah hobbled after them and knocked politely on the manager’s door. When he opened it he looked flustered and sad. Sarah piped up in her best impression of Lady Di,
“He’s just a lad, and he’s dirt poor. Have a heart luv, I’ll take him off your hands and see that he doesn’t come back here to cause you grief, luv. What’d ye say?”
The manager sighed and motioned her in to collect the kid. He charged her for her groceries and escorted them to a back door.
Now I know how this story should end, with the bag lady sharing her cheese with the “dirt poor” boy. But as soon as they were out of the store, the boy unzipped the secret compartments in his jacket to reveal their haul for the day.
The bag lady and her adopted grandson went off into the sunset to enjoy their dinner.