I woke up this morning blessedly pain free. (The only Crest I want to see this week is the white top of ocean waves.) But since I don't pick up Elena until noon, I took aspirin and a nap to keep it at bay, and now I'm about to "hop in the tub" (as we say) and pick up happy girl for our trip.
When Crest does hit, my fingers look like fat little sausages and pain starts creeping in, but I'm lucky. I have yoga, the gym, massage, medical care, friends, family. What if I had none of those and had to work at War-Mart all night, naps a rare luxury?
My favorite checker at 24-Hour Wal-Mart is a woman who loves her job and has been doing it for years. Whenever I go there, it's midnight or after; she works all night. Maybe she's 45, maybe 65, hard to tell. Her torso in her checker navy reminds me of a sack filled with a settling heap of potatoes. (My torso in the $17 swimsuit looks like a round helium balloon atop ripply thighs and it's going back to the store pronto--the suit not the torso.)
She has some disorder herself, maybe Crest. Her red face and hands are puffy and stiff. She's missing a couple of front teeth, and she's most likely among the many who can't afford good dental or medical care. Yet--she's always so happy and friendly. "I love this job so much," she once told me. "You get to meet the nicest people!"
"I see you're going to the beach!" she said with almost as much glee as if she were going herself. "I always get my swimsuits here when they go on sale at the end of the season. Since I don't have air-conditioning at my house, me and my dog get in the pool every day to stay cool." I think it interesting that she has a pool and no cool air in her house, then she tells me her pool is plastic and you can buy one right outside the store, a 6-foot baby pool.
Her favorite place is Splash-Town, and she goes there "all the time" when she can afford it, but they don't let her dog go there. Her dream? If she ever wins the Power Ball, she's going to build a water park for people and dogs!
"I love those bags!" she said when she rang up a shiny bag I got in the freezer department for taking cold drinks. "You just freeze your water bottles tonight and you'll have cold drinks the whole time."
Great idea! I froze them last night and am all set to pack that bag with frozen water bottles for our trip. "Just put your cold cuts and mayonnaise at the bottom, under the frozen water bottles." she added--but I'm not taking any cold cuts and mayo. The bread I bought is for the birds.
"Please bring me some pictures of you and that baby girl at the beach," she called out as I was leaving. I almost have tears in my eyes still this morning. The woman at War-Mart has never been to the beach, yet she wants pictures from two of us who are going!
She's the "nicest people" at War-Mart--and all the rest of us jockey to get in her line to chat with her.
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