August 1, 2009

• Xanga Teen Writing Contest: LoveSporks

  This entry was featured, and it's pretty easy to figure out why. It's the 3rd place winner in the contest. Please go congratulate LoveSporks in the comment section of the original entry!

  mister deli man.

  when i was six, my family moved us to the town i currently live in now. back then, everything seemed so different. it was like the skies were clearer, the days - longer, and i could be relaxed, and free.

  saturday mornings, i woke up, promptly at seven in the morning, just to go food shopping with my mom. it was our "thing" to do, food shopping. between my mom, my sister, and myself, saturday morning groceries run was the bonding time we never had time for once in the premises of home.

  it was two weeks after moving, we were getting used to our new surroundings. my mom took us to a different place to do our weekly shopping. my sister and i shrugged it off. the location of food shopping didn't matter, as long as we went. my sister used to say it's to "get the yum yum in the tum tum," just to make me smile. but i was stubborn, and my usual pout stayed on my face.

  my mom took me to the viciously busy deli section while my sister went off to get other staple goods. i saw other children my age, sitting within the carriage, or holding their mother's hands, crying, fidgeting, wishing they weren't there.

  i held onto my mom's coat, standing slightly behind her, hidden from the eyes of the scary older people.

  and then her number appeared. it was her turn to order. the deli man began to take her order, when suddenly, he stopped, and looked around her. he saw me. and he smiled.

  i immediately hid directly behind my mom, but i could hear his laughter. my mom got her deli goods, turned around, and went to find my sister. i followed obediently, like a lost duckling, and i could hear the man saying "bye bye." i turned around, seeing his smiling face, waving at me.

  he looked young. as if he were in college. he had this brown hair that highlighted these emerald jewels in his eyes perfectly. it was hard to describe. but it was like he jumped straight out of a movie and into a supermarket. what was he doing in that kind of place?

  the next week came, the same man waited on us, and i still hid behind my mom's winter coat.

  "hello little girl," i peeked at him from behind my mom, seeing pearly whites gleaming in my direction, "do you like american cheese? i can give you a slice." i nodded silently, and he handed my mom a piece to give to me. i said thank you quietly, and he, again, grinned, then went to take my mom's orders.

  it became routine, week by week. my mom and i would go to the deli section together, and the same man would take our orders, and occasionally gave me a slice of that land o' lakes american cheese.

  once i turned seven, my mom began to send me to the deli section alone to take our weekly orders as she went off with my sister and showed her how to buy certain meats and vegetables. i'd skip off to the deli section as soon as we entered the market, and once the man saw me, he'd finish whomever he was helping, and immediately take my order.

  occasionally, he and i shared a conversation getting to know more about each other. i learned he was a student at a local college, studying biology. i didn't know the difference between biology and chemistry back then. science was science to me. when it wasn't busy, he'd explain to me the different kinds of trees i walk by every day, and how biology does effect me. it was like my own personal ten minute biology tutoring session every week.

  every so often, he'd explain to me how he wants to travel to certain places. this job was one of many to help him on his adventure. he wanted to experience the rush of excitement as he'd find certain plants, trees, natural life. i'd giggle to myself and call him a geek. and in return, he'd take his forefinger and poke the space between my eyes.

  "you're silly."

  all of the other deli-workers would smile every time they saw me approaching. "you bring a smile to his face," they once told me. i would grin in return.

  but sometime during my eighth year, my sister stopped going to do morning groceries with us. she was fourteen, and wanted to do things like sleep in instead of spending time with my mom and me. after a while, i followed suit. "if she gets to sleep, why couldn't i sleep, too?" i thought that if i didn't go to the groceries with my mom, that would give me some right of passage of being "older," i guess. that whole mimicking-my-sister thing was just a bad move on my part.

  two years later, i returned to my usual routine of food shopping with my mom. it was just the two of us. i skipped over to the deli section, like old times.

  but he wasn't there.

  i looked around after i'd get my weekly deli goods.

  but he wasn't there.

  i aimlessly searched and searched for him, but i'd end my shopping journeys with no results. until one week, when i went to the deli section, a woman in the deli section that used to see me talking to mister deli man spotted me, as i waited to place my order. "oh! it's the girl that brian used to adore!"

  was she talking about me?

  she walked up to me, and said hello, smiling. asking me if i recognized her. i nodded shyly, my eyes unable to look into her own. she questioned how i've been, where i've been, and wondered why i hadn't shown up at the deli section in the past two years. i ignorered her question, and asked her the question i was dying to know. i looked up at her, hoping to hear an answer i wished for.

  "where's mister deli man?"

  her smile faded quickly, and suddenly the mood changed. no longer was she smiling, and she couldn't make eye contact with me.

  "oh," her voice quivered, "brian? he went somewhere." somewhere?

  "where'd he go?" i grinned, expecting an answer like peru, or timbuktu. but she didn't say anything. instead, she looked up.

  "he went to heaven."

  i stopped going to the deli section afterwards. my mom learned of what happened to mister deli man from the woman who talked to me. i never learned what happened to him until a few years ago. apparently, a year earlier, one night he was driving back on the highway from the city, and a drunk driver hit him directly into an exit rail.

  he didn't make the night.

  my ten year old self couldn't comprehend the severity of what it meant, mister deli man going to heaven.

  it wasn't until today, when i went to this same market, and this same deli section, to pick up a few things for my mom. it wasn't until today that suddenly, i re-encountered a memory i left behind.

  that same woman who talked to me seven years ago still worked at the deli section, and she saw me.

  "my my, haven't you grown into a fine young lady." she told me. back then, she seemed elderly already. today, it is apparent age is catching up to her quickly. i asked her how she's been these past years, and she told me nothing much has changed in her life.

  after a brief amount of chitter chatter on our past lives, and future to come, she hesitated and brought him up.

  mister deli man.

  i felt my chest tightening, and my breath became shallow. "even though you never knew each other's names, you brightened his days. life is about all sorts of encounters, and i've known brian for a long time. you were definitely his greatest." my eyes watered, and i could feel hot streams gliding across my cheek and down my face.

  i didn't see him very often. but back then, i couldn't wait for my deli encounters. my biggest regret is suddenly disappearing, and never being able to say goodbye.
  
  this is to you, mister deli man.

  • 2:54 pm
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