Story a Day

Martha had discovered the huge socks in the window of a discount store for obese people. The store was called “Beautiful Big Bargains.” Martha liked to wear the huge socks as hats. The socks made very comfortable hats. Obese people were exactly as big around in the calf as Martha’s head. Martha was allergic to wool, but the socks were made with ribbed cotton. She was good at scrunching up the socks so they looked almost like they were really hats. She was usually able to lose the heel by bunching folds of sock around it. The toe always stuck up a bit, like the tip of a beanie.

Martha had a lime-green sock on her head today. The toe stuck up like a green nipple or a green nose. She was wearing a red sweater and black sweatpants. She was reading a book of Thai recipes. She felt frumpy. But there was no one around to see. Steve and Martha’s kids were all grown up, except for Frieda. Frieda was seventeen and only came home to sleep. This week Steve was in Seattle. Steve sold software to important wholesale clients.

Martha didn’t have a job anymore. She had worked as a cashier at Take-a-Leaf Books. The bookstore had closed last week. “Take home a box of books,” Martha’s boss had said to his three employees. So Martha had walked through the store with a milk crate, tossing in mysteries and cookbooks and geometry textbooks. Now she was unemployed, but she had books to read. Maybe later she would try to make curry from the cookbook, if she could figure out where to buy kaffir leaves.

image: monkeyc.net on flickr