there are people whose existences and facilities can be summed up in a single word.
pete jones was such a person.
he was a bum.
it promised to be just another day for pete when he was greeted at the breakfast table by his grandmother, who had been his sole source of support for many months.
“going to look for a job today?”
“i don’t think so,” pete replied, as he blew steam off his cup of instant coffee.
“let me guess - you are just not in the mood.”
“it’s not that i’m not in the mood - this just isn’t a good day.”
“oh, i know - it’s either too early in the week or too late.”
“exactly.”
“which is it?”
“i don’t know - what day is it today?”
“wednesday.”
“oh. are you sure?”
pete’s grandmother showed him the morning newspaper, which clearly showed that it was wednesday, may 6. pete himself hardly ever read the newspaper, or much of anything except the racing form if he had a few dollars to bet with which he had not had lately.
“so it’s not too early or too late in the week, is it?”
pete shrugged. “i guess not.”
“so, are you going to look for a job?”
“i don’t know, it really doesn’t feel like a great day for it.”
“great or not, i think you should give it a try.”
“you got any grapefruit juice? i told you, i don’t like this orange juice.”
“you want grapefruit juice? you want grapefruit juice, big fella, instead of lousy orange juice? well, by golly, if you went out and earned some money of your own you could buy all the grapefruit juice you want, ever think pf that? you could buy your own grapefruit tree.”
“i was just asking.”
“maybe you could get a job picking grapefruit. you could put one in your pocket when you went home at night and then you’d be all set.”
“there’s no grapefruits to pick around here. they’re all 10,000 miles away in florida or someplace.”
“oh well, in that case i guess there’s no way you can look for a job.”
“all right, all right, i’ll look for a job. you don’t have to be the spanish inquisition about it.”
“this morning?”
“yes, this morning. can i finish my coffee and my orange juice first?”
“i guess.”
pete began slowly taking alternate sips of the orange juice and the coffee, constantly blowing on the coffee and swirling the orange juice in the glass.
“you think you could give me fifty or sixty cents - for lunch? “
“lunch?”
“yeah, in case i’m out all day looking for a job. i’ll need to keep my strength up. it might be kind of warm out.”
“you spend the whole day looking for a job? that would be a first. that i’d pay to see.”
“so you’ll give it to me?”
“yeah, i’ll give you sixty cents. i’ll give you seventy-five cents - six whole bits. but i don’t want to see your face before the sun goes down.”
No comments:
Post a Comment