Member-only story
Angels
Three tales
In the midst of pandemic lockdowns, my work-displaced chef husband turned his mom’s garage into an “essentials” food store. In the Philippines, the essentials were rice, cured meats, and frozen meals.
Francis, my husband, printed a hundred copies of his store’s price list. He thought, he could walk around the village, ring doorbells, chat with the neighbors, hand each of them a price list.
He decided against it when he realized he had to lock up the shop while away on his walks. What if someone actually went to buy something? A lost sale. Francis also hadn’t been back to this village since he left his mother’s house. He was essentially a stranger, and pandemic paranoia had turned people hostile to strangers ringing their doorbells.
So he just kept the print-outs at the shop window. Or gave them away to passersby and passing cars who cared to check out the shop.
Sales were very slow. One afternoon, an old man dropped by, picked up a price list, and said, “Ah, my neighbor Mr. A might want to see this. He likes ham!” He took the list with him and said he’ll be back. The following afternoon, the old man returned and took a handful this time. “I’m going out for a jog,” he told Francis. “I’m going to give these away to friends! This will give me a reason to ring their doorbells and say hi.”
