Grocery Stories and Other Tales No. 1

I love encounters with strangers. I also love to eavesdrop.

The following happened a couple weeks ago:

I was at CashWise picking up a few groceries. I was looking at magazines when a nice, but rough, looking woman, probably in her 40s, started looking at the books.

I had a feeling she was going to say something to me - and she did. She asked about a book. She couldn't remember the author, but it was a biography about the Mamas and the Papas: High on Arrival. I helped her look, but they didn't have it.

I went to check out, and she was ahead of me, getting ready to pay, and already had a cigarette in her mouth. She took it out to ask if it was the 11th or the 12th and the cashier and I both said it was the 10th. She cursed under her breath (I think) and said, "No wonder. I don't get food stamps till the 11th." I offered to pay - her total was $4.08 - but she declined and hurried out.