Convenience Store

The white girl dashed through the door three minutes before closing, and I wanted to kill her. I still had to eat dinner, buy gas, and rush to my night class in the next hour.

After running around frantically, she returned to the register with only three items. A jumbo box of Kotex, painkillers, and baby formula. And I realized how young she was to already have death’s shadow under her eyes.

“I’m sorry I kept you late,” she said as I rung her up. “I couldn’t get here any sooner.”

She paid cash, exact change. I said, “No problem.”