In Case You've Wondered

My blog is where my wandering thoughts are interspersed with stuff I made up. So, if while reading you find yourself confused about the context, don't feel alone. I get confused, too.

If you're here for the stories, I started another blog: scratchingforchange.blogspot.com

One other thing: sometimes I write words you refuse to use in front of children, or polite company, unless you have a flat tire, or hit your thumb with a hammer.

I don't use them to offend; I use them to embellish.

jescordwaineratgmail.com

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Passing the Past

Today, I was in my home town and passed a building that used to be a convenience store. When I was living a few blocks away, I would stop at the store often and the same woman was usually there every evening.

The woman, who I thought was probably fifteen years older than I was, usually worked the evening shift. She had a young teenage daughter that would sometimes be in the store during her shift. From the short conversations we had, I gathered she was single mom with the usual worries about raising her daughter. Her daughter was at that age where the lack of supervision could end with a ruined life.

Over time I moved and stopped going to the store. Years later, I was watching a show about crime. It was a stark show that had a segment where the news crew reached the crime scene before the police secured the area. A part of the segment showed a woman sitting on the floor with a bullet wound in her forehead. She was alive, coherent, but obviously in distress. I suddenly realized it was that clerk. I, also, remembered reading about the robbery when it happened. The report had given a name, which I never knew, and a later report stated she died. I never put the pieces together. I didn't know who had died.

I've wondered what happened to her daughter; whether she had family, or ended up in foster care. I, also, wondered about whether she moved on, or was forever scarred and would never have any semblance of a normal life.

Evil stalks us every day. We don't notice it, or ever really feel the consequences, until it destroys someone we know or love. It's a harsh reality that's a punk robber with a gun, or a government without conscience that destroys all detractors in the cruelest methods imaginable. It will never be completely eliminated, but it can be isolated. This requires a society that condemns evil and handles those that stray to evil without hesitation. If not, there's only anarchy and the unbridled power of those without compassion.

1 comment:

  1. I had a similar experience. On day at my local convenience store there was an obituary posted at the register for one of the store workers that passed away from a long illness. She had been working, cheerfully, until a couple of weeks before. I had no idea. I had always lookked forward to going in when she was working because she was so upbeat.

    Side note, don't let the zero commets bother you. We are reading and enjoying.

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