Faith, Hope, and Charity
by Jake Barnes
I see the fat black lady everywhere. She wears three or four tattered sweaters on cool days. She pushes a basket borrowed from a grocery store. There is a plastic lawn bag in the basket with God knows what inside. Once I sat next to her at a local sandwich shop. I was with some friends. I knew about the store's policy, which is that if you have no money, you eat free. I was with a bunch of jokers, and she seemed to be eavesdropping on our conversation. She would chuckle from time to time. Sometime I see her on a bench in front of a grocery store. Once as I was a going into the store, I took a twenty dollar bill out of my wallet and offered it to her. She looked at me and smiled. “No, thank you, I'm fine,” she said, “The Lord provides for me. I have all that I need.”
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Author's Note
A true story.
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you can send the twenty to me.
I don't even have a shopping cart!
Nicely done.*
She's your holy ghost. That's it.
Did she not see you as in 'the kindness of others' category?
Such a lucid closing.
Love the surprise at the end. Ironic, for sure, but nails the character.
A good read, Jake. Nothing wasted in the piece. Nice compression.
I love the ending. Excellent story. *
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Them's that's got want. Them's that not, not. Good story.*
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There's one or two like that in Sarasota. One of them told me "Money is not charity." Parable like flash Jake. *
"...borrowed from a grocery store." True kindness. *
Sweet portrait of a series of moments with someone. It reminds me of a poem I changed to omit "black woman" when a fellow poet told me that to include her was "racination." After the omission, the poem changed ... I have written it out in an essay, and the poem exists that way in both versions. I feel the readers here are not fighting the same objection. I can see this woman and hear her in this vignette. *
You just keep rolling out the hits. I wish I were half as prolific and talented.*
Sometimes I just thoughtlessly enjoy your stories and sometimes I think for a couple of minutes about why. The why for this one and for many others is because 1)they are fearless and 2) I get one of my favourite feelings after reading,which is that we are all in this together.