Encounter At Winn Dixie

Two of us on a bench outside the store I'm waiting for a bus; Enid's waiting while her husband shops. Forty years between us Sharing butter cookies because we both skipped breakfast Enid lights up a cigarette. She needs to know my name, my son's name, where I'm from originally We talk about a recent hurricane and that her husband brings her coffee in the mornings "I'm 83 years old" "Most women don't like to tell their age," she says "But I'm proud I'm still going!" The brace on her leg, I find out, is due to a stroke at age fourteen; a condition she was born with. "I push myself" she tells me "I drive the car; my husband can't because he has only one eye." Walking is difficult; communicating easy. We carry on; have a few more cookies I head to the bus stop while Enid waits for her husband. We wish each other well.