SNEAK PEEK

See that dirty old man at the liquor store, down on the floor picking up a quarter? He’s watching the dime at the counter. He’s taking his time.

She’s a collage of color; short white dress, fancy shoes,  – and the old man’s a mess of emotions. He hasn’t been laid since Ethel died - how time flies. How many years has he been sitting there by himself on that front porch?

He won’t let it show. He wishes he could talk to her, just say a few words, but he doesn’t want her to know how weak he is, how sad, how alone.

See that dime at the counter in the liquor store, looking out the corner of her eye at the man stooping down to the floor? She’s seen him so many times, sitting on the front porch of his house. He looks so much like her father it bothers her.
 
She knows he’s all alone now, since his wife died. She wonders, how many times has he cried. What was her name?

She knows she looks like she’s “got it together”, but the dress is torn at the hem and the diamond earrings are the only ones she has that are real: a $60 deal at K-Mart. She wishes she could console him, make a connection.

She hands over her cash, gets her bottle of gin, and relishes the moment when she can pour an over-sized splash of liquor into her glass. Her father has been gone for only 2 months, but it feels like forever. Like she’ll never find peace again and she’s afraid if she lets anyone in, even a lonely old man that they will see how weak she is, how sad, how alone.