a liter of wine
a liter of wine
Some time ago, before Putin came to power and made Russia
into a modern state, many Russians came to Portugal, trying to find work
They were met with skepticism after years of propaganda about
Russia and communism had taken their toll
The locals offered little help
Every night, when the supermarkets shut, they waited for
The bins are filled with scraps of food, and one gathers rats
went hungry for a while.
One uniformed security guard got the idea of pouring bleach
on the discarded food, rendering it inedible
When people in
The town heard of this outrage, and people protested, demanding that the guard be fired from his job.
The guard's sadism made people look at the refugees with friendlier eyes, and they got temporary jobs here and there.
In front of me, at the supermarket, he had bought a carton of white wine priced at ninety cents.
Counting the coins in his shaky hands came to eighty cents; he looked crestfallen, the shame!
My thought was to be magnanimous and pay for his wine, but that would only make me feel good if he humiliated.
I slid a ten-cent coin onto the counter and said, 'Look, here is a forgotten coin.'
At the exit, he turned and nodded my way.
Copyright © Jan Hansen | Year Posted 2025
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