Читать книгу Come On In! - Charles Bukowski - Страница 15

this woman at the counter ahead of me

was buying four pairs of panties:

yellow, pink, blue and orange.

the lady at the register kept picking up

the panties and

counting them:

one, two, three, four.

then she counted them again:

one, two, three, four.

will there be anything else?

she asked the lady who was buying the

panties.

no, that’s it, she answered.

no cigarettes or anything?

no, that’s it.

the woman at the register

rang up the sale

collected the money

gave change

looked off into the distance

for a bit

and then she bent under the counter

and got a bag

and put the panties in this bag

one at a time—

first the blue pair, then the yellow,

then the orange, then the pink.

she looked at me next:

how are you doing today?

fair, I said.

is there anything else?

cigarettes?

all I want is what you see in front of

you.

I had hemorrhoid ointment

laxatives

and a box of paper clips.

she rang it up, took my money, made

change, bagged my things, handed them

to me.

have a nice day, she did not say.

and you too,

I said.