A Commercial Inconvenience


Taking a short cut through the shopping centre,
I came across a man,
confined to a wheel chair,
positioned close to the exit,
head slumped to one side,
staring through the
transparent doors to the outside. 

Individuals, couples and groups walked passed him with looks of confused disgust.
Partly annoyed he was blocking the exit, but bewildered to what he was doing. 
I stopped beside him.

“Excuse me, are you alright?” I asked.
He lifted his crooked neck and looked at me through his bullet proof glasses.
“Yeah, I’m fine” he replied. 
“Do you want me to open the door for you?” 
“No, I’m fine thank you”. 

I nodded and walked out of the exit and stopped at a zebra crossing.
I turned back around and saw an employee push the man through the doors before 
   walking back inside. 

Apparently, some of the dust mustn’t have been swept under the carpet.





A Glimmer of Hope


I sat at a table in the cafeteria at work with a few other employees.

The atmosphere was tiring and primarily silent, except for the occasional 
announcement asking for someone to head to the manager’s office or for the
cleaner to head to an aisle.

I began peeling open the food stained 
pages of The Sun newspaper. 

Suddenly, a voice emanated from
the cafeteria door. I turned around and saw Stacy (a check out girl) asking
rhetorical questions to the room. 

“Is there anyone interesting in here?” she asked. 
A few of the glum faces shook their heads. 
“No? Looks like there isn’t” she said. 

She poked her head back through the door and gave us back the silence.
 
It was the most interesting thing she had ever done.