My side

Chapter 6 Bernie continued

As I walked toward him with my plastic bag of groceries, I could see that he was very old. His face was all lined with wrinkles, like someone had crumpled it up and thrown it aside, only for someone to find it again, unfold it, and draw a face on it. His nose was bent and misshapen, his eyebrows thick and uneven, and his mouth almost un recognizable among all those wrinkles. It was only his eyes that didn't look to be more than a hundred years old. One was a misty blue gray, the pupil set directly in the center. There was something wrong with his other eye, it was forest green and kept whizzing around in its socket.
Yet when he looked at me, I could sense the totality of his focus. "Ya got a dolla' kid?" He said, his voice ruff and bristly. "I do" I replied, staring back at him just as intently.
Without dropping my gaze he grinned, revealing a mouth full of yellow teeth. "Ya wanna let me borrow it?" He asked, tilting his head to the side.
I considered. I knew my mother wouldn't want me letting this homeless man borrow so much as a spare button. Then again, she probably didn't want me selling my ballet slippers on the black market either, but I did that. And of course, he wasn't asking about my mother, he was asking about me. Did I want to give him a dollar? I wasn't sure.
I'd just met him, and besides, I didn't know what he wanted to do with the dollar, or if he'd even pay me back. But I liked something about his steady gaze, the way he looked at me like I wasn't just a 13 year old girl with messy brown hair and only a plastic grocery bag to defend myself.
Yes, I decided, I would like to give this man a dollar. "Yes" I say, nodding to him.
He laughed now and shook his head, dropping his eyes to his lap. He glanced back at me, still laughing. "Is you gonna give it to me then, or is you not?" He asked.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a dollar, folded neatly, and handed it to him. Extending an arthritis riddled hand, he took it from me with surprising gentleness. "Many thanks" he said with a grin, sticking it behind his ear like a cigarette.
I didn't move. "I'll be expecting repayment" I said evenly. He laughed again, a real hearty laugh. "Why of course miss" he said, sweeping off his tattered Yankees cap, and revealing a mostly bald scalp with a few wisps of long brown hair sticking out in clumps. i nod, and shake his frail hand. I turn on my heal and leave him chuckling behind me, inside the dingy supermarket.
I look around. It's late, I know. The mist is still falling, and the cars on route 90 are hazy in the fog. I look up at the nearest street lamp, with its piercing red glow. Strangely, it doesn't seem all that awful anymore.
Smiling to myself, I head out into the night.