Everything Will Be OK!
Martin Shiro, USA
One of the famous Ralphs food supermarkets in Glendale, California, is located on Central Wilson Street, right next to the no less famous Wells Fargo Bank. It has two entrances, one directly from the underground, spacious parking lot, and the other from the street for the pedestrians or mainly the elderly, the poor, and the homeless.
Upon entering through the luxurious, automatically opening, glass doors, the pedestrian shopper will see the “Service Deli” on the left, that is, the prepared food section, where under the glass windows you can see already cooked fish, chicken, pork, and beef samples, and various other ready meals. Prices are affordable, slightly more than raw or unprepared. There are several tables and chairs right in front of the “Service Deli” to taste the food, bought on the spot. Some people, especially during the hot summer months, buy ready-made, basically home-cooked food, so that they do not have to stand in front of a hot stove in the horrible heat, but the main customers of “Service Deli” are single, elderly or homeless people. Almost all of them are slovenly, careless: their shoes are dusty, their clothes rumpled, men are unshaven, and women are not made up or combed. Their eyes are lifeless, their last hope dashed and sad. They are not in a hurry because they probably have nowhere to go; they eat the food in front of them and surely with half an eye read some old newspaper or magazine, apparently according to the previous custom. Some of them carry their belongings in small wheeled bags.
On the right side of the entrance to the supermarket, there are lottery machines with colorful lights and pleasant, seductive beeps, which are mostly used by the elderly, low-income, poor, or homeless customers of “Service Deli”. Some of them still hope that one day they will win big money!
About fifty years old, a thin, black woman was standing in a small line in front of “Service Deli’s” ready-to-eat shop windows. She was different from the others because was neatly dressed, although the clothes she was wearing were a bit worn, but there was hope and kindness in her eyes. The woman bought a fried chicken thigh for $ 1.49, a half-pound salad for $ 1.99, a bun for $ 0.75, and a 0.5 liter of drinking water for $ 1.10 for a total of $ 5.23.
“Here’s your change, $ 4.77 and good appetite,” said the saleswoman.
“Thank you!”
“This will be enough for tomorrow’s breakfast,” the woman thought, “and what am I going to do for dinner? I think everything will be OK!”
The woman, already full, left Ralphs and headed in the direction of Wells Fargo Bank. In front of her, in the same direction, an exhausted, old, homeless, white man with worn-out trousers and a jacket was walking slowly, with shaky steps. When he reached the bench in front of the bank, he stopped and sat down. His gaze was lifeless and uncertain. The woman, reaching him, noticed it and approached the old man and said:
“Everything will be OK, God is great!”
Then she took out the change of $ 4.77 from her pocket and gave it all to him. The old man’s eyes immediately came to life, a faint gleam of hope shone in his desperate eyes. He walked steadily, confidently towards Ralphs, “Service Deli”.
The woman approached the barrel-shaped trash can near the bank entrance door, took out four plastic bottles and three squeezed tin cans of Coca-Cola, and loudly exclaimed with joy:
“I was saying that everything would be OK, wasn’t it?”
Glendale, California
13 March 2017
