So this woman came into the branch a few days ago and asked for a bag. I’d finished helping her through the self-checkout. “If I don’t get one, my husband’s gonna yell at me.” Sometimes the customers leave them and I give them away. One morning someone left a dozen recyclable cloth bags in the book drop and I passed them out to kids and parents, happy to corral their picture books and SpongeBob.
I explained we were out of recycled bags, but she could purchase one for twenty cents.
“May I be blessed?”
I am agnostic. This question still sets me on edge. A coworker was nearby or else I’d give her a bag, but she stepped in and told her they were for purchase only.
“Well maybe you’ll run outta money and they’ll shut the library down. Then you won’t have no jobs!” she said. She left and said we needed to be Saved.
I think about all the fines I waived that day.
//
At night there’s a woman who delivers the newspapers. We have the same name. Sometimes she asks for water or an apple. I let her have them because you need to have good relationships with people who come on property. I remember working nights in Portland, the street urchins in the weird wedge between Powell’s and the edge of PSU. They figured out as long as there wasn’t any trouble they could use the bathroom and get coffee turned sludge and stale cookies if they weren’t trashed yet. Winter time, you can walk down Alder to the transit mall and see people become frozen stone under newspapers.
The woman takes some time picking out a green apple. She says she’s been baptized today and I congratulate her. She has a stream of consciousness episode about Jesus and Being Saved and Accepting Him. She asks me if I am Saved and I explain my position. She smiles at me and says I am so pretty and nice, that God is waiting to speak to me.
I don’t take complements well. I thank her. I smile. I am learning to thank people and smile.
[Note: I do not have regular computer access. I will respond as I am able.]