The Shoplifters - Both Audio and Text

Just a couple months ago, while heading home from work, I stopped to grab some basics at a small-town grocery store. I’d only just begun to wander through the crowded aisles to find the few important things that I had come in for, When I would overhear a pair of whispering teenage kids, as I would crouch to read the price on something near the floor. I could easily hear the shame within their frantic voices, “I can’t believe we have to steal,” the first would softly say. The other voice would answer, in a frank but worried tone, “We have to have these pills, Denise…and there’s no other way. If Justin’s fever doesn’t break, I don’t know what we’ll do. We can’t afford a doctor…and we have no means to pay.” The two had no idea at all that they were not alone. They had no way of knowing that their every private word Was coursing through the mind of someone poised so very near. Sharing plans to steal, of course, would not have been preferred, And I would stay there, motionless, and contemplate the point where I would go and tell the clerk about what I’d just heard. “I suppose we have to,” said a trembling young Denise. “If Justin weren’t so very sick…I know we’d never steal.” “No, of course not,” said her partner in their tiny crime, “and I know you can understand how bad it makes me feel.” “Yes, I can,” she answered him, “and Kevin, please believe me…in my heart I know this need for medicine is real. “OK, now,” she softly said. “Oh, God, this makes me sick. Let’s go…before I start to cry. I’ve never felt so sad. If only there were some way we could pay for Justin’s pills, but when I checked his fever last, well…it was really bad.” And when the nervous couple walked from out behind the aisle, I saw, at last, the anxious…and the desperate mom and dad. When they saw me kneeling there, their faces froze with fear. The guilt within their tearful eyes betrayed their little sin. For just a moment, no one moved, but then my heart dissolved, and I stood up and said, “Hey Kevin…how the heck ya’ been? Hi, Denise…and how’s that little Justin? By the way…I was kind o’ hopin’ that I’d see you guys again. “Here’s that hundred dollars that you loaned me back in June. I’m sorry that it took so long to fin’ly get you paid.” They knew I could have turned them in, but when they saw me wink, they both would quickly comprehend the choice that I had made. Kevin squeezed Denise’s hand, and gave his son a kiss, then stepped behind a counter where the papers were displayed And pulled the pills he’d stolen from the pocket of his pants. And when he reappeared, Denise broke down, and said to me, “You must be an angel. We’re so grateful for your help. How can we repay you…we’re as broke as we can be?” “Just remember,” I replied, “to help somebody else…if and when you get the chance…that will be my fee!” PS: I've now got 4 new Audio-CDs to offer my poetry fans- @ 4 1/2 hours each = (62 diversely varied pieces). They’re listed on EBAY - under - “Mark Stellinga Poetry” - or available by simply contacting me at -- mark@writerofbooks.com -- should those of you who enjoy listening to poems as well as reading them - and particularly those of you who travel - care to be so entertained. (We use safe and simple - PayPal) Cheers, Mark