Escort Story #2

Escort Story #2
     (circa 1994)
 
I am coming home from a Bible Study
I use to lead in Jackson Heights in Queens
at Charles and Mirna’s home.  It is near
La Guardia Airport, and a large plane
taking off flies over every 5 minutes
shaking the apartment as we “fellowship.”
 
At the street corner across from a
Shop Rite is a woman on the corner
looking in and out of her purse,
looking up to the sky,
walking around and looking on
the ground for something.
 
I roll the window down in the 1979
sky blue Oldsmobile my Nana and
Grandpa Short gave to me as a gift.
 
Everything Okay?
“No.  I had some money, and now I can’t find it.
I had my five dollars in Shop Rite, but now I
can’t find it!  Can you help me find it?”
 
I pull the car over and we walk over to
the food store.
 
What do you do for a living?
“I am a hair dresser.”
 
I can tell by her dog breath and unkempt look
and hooker outfit, she is a lady of the evening.
 
 
As we get closer to the store,  I think,  she is
just hoping I give her $5 as a gift.
 
We walk into the store and I say,
Let’s retrace your steps.
 
She begins walking into the store,
and we walk over to the meat isle,
and she says,   “I was standing over here
checking out the prices, then I walked
out of the store.
 
I stand and begin looking up and down
the white and green Mauorette linoleum
flooring in the flickering mood lighting
of florescent light bulbs.
 
I pray,  “God please help me.  How can I really
help this woman?”   I feel the urge to get down on
my knees where the meat aisle cooler metaling
meets the floor,  I see a small corner of paper
dark green, light green and some black ink.
 
I grab it with my finger nails, and I pull out
what turns out to be a $5 dollar bill.
 
“Does this look familiar Ma’am?”
 
Like the poor old woman in the gospels who
lost a coin celebrating when she finds it again,
the hooker smiles nodding her head with
the “I told you so” look.