Shoeshine Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

you know what happened?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œShe called my name. The others all thought it was a joke. But she wasn’t laughing. She said, ‘Al wins a medal for building the best fires.’”
    â€œAnd it wasn’t a joke?” asked Sarah Ida.
    â€œNo. She gave me the medal. One of the big boys said, ‘You better keep that, Al, because it’s the only one you’ll ever get.’”
    â€œAnd did you keep it?”
    He held up his watch chain. Something was hanging from it—something that looked like a worn, old coin.
    â€œThat’s what you won?” asked Sarah Ida.
    He nodded.
    â€œThat’s a medal?” she said. “That little old piece of tin?”
    She shouldn’t have said it. As soon as the words were out, she was sorry.

    Al sat very still. He looked into the street. A moment before, he had been a friend. Now he was a stranger.
    He said, “Rain’s stopped. For a while, anyway.”
    He slid out of his chair. She got up, too. “I—” she began.
    He dragged the folding door across the stand and locked up.
    â€œGo on. Run,” he said. “Maybe you can get home before the rain starts again.”
    She stood there. “I didn’t mean what you think I did,” she said. “That medal—it doesn’t matter if it’s tin or silver or gold. It doesn’t matter what it’s made of, if it’s something you like. I said the wrong thing, but it wasn’t what I meant . I—” He had his back to her. She didn’t think he was listening. She said, “Listen to me!”
    He turned around. “You like ice cream?”
    â€œYes,” she said.
    â€œCome on. I’ll buy you a cone.”
    She went with him, around the corner to Pearl’s Ice Cream Shack.
    â€œWhat kind?” he asked.
    â€œChocolate,” she said.
    They sat on a bench inside the Shack and ate their chocolate cones.
    â€œIt’s raining again,” he said.
    â€œYes,” she said.
    Then they were quiet, while they listened to the rain. And she was happy because the stranger was gone and Al was back.

The Accident
----
    For a month it went on that way—she and Al working and talking together. She’d thought it would go on and on like that.
    Then came the day of the accident.
    Al had run out of black shoe polish. He told her, “I’ll go over to the store and pick up some more.”
    â€œI’ll go,” she said.
    â€œNo,” he said. “You keep on with what you’re doing.”
    She finished with her customer. By that time Al was coming back across the street. He hardly ever walked. He almost always ran. He was running now, with his head down.
    He was nearly to the curb, when a long, blue car came around the corner.
    She shouted. She was too late. The car struck him. He spun around and fell, half on the sidewalk, half on the street.
    The car stopped. A man jumped out. His face was pale. “He walked right in front of me,” he said. “I couldn’t stop.”
    Other people came running.
    â€œDon’t try to move him,” someone said. “Wait for the ambulance.”
    The ambulance came screaming down Grand Avenue. It stopped near the stand.
    Sarah Ida pushed through the crowd. She saw Al lying across the curb. He looked like a bundle of old clothes.
    Two men in white were there. They turned him over. She saw his eyes looking up at her. He reached into his pocket.
    One of the men said, “Don’t move.”
    Something fell out of Al’s hand and onto the sidewalk. She picked it up. It was the key to the shoeshine stand.
    â€œLock up,” he said in a whisper, “and go on home.”
    The two men lifted him into the ambulance. The ambulance went screaming on down the street.
    The crowds moved away. Sarah Ida was alone. She felt numb. She went over to the stand and sat down.
    On the sidewalk was the can of shoe polish Al had bought.