12/7/11

Grapes and Strawberries
By Gil C. Schmidt


    He popped another white grape into his mouth and peered at the strawberries in their vivid green baskets. Darcy walked up to the man and spoke in a low voice. "Sir, it isn't allowed to eat the merchandise without paying for it."
    The man turned and looked Darcy up and down, frankly, openly, but not in any way as an intrusion, she felt, more like he was...sizing her up for something. He had several grapes in his left hand and looked at them like he'd looked at her. "I got these from the bins over there." He pointed with his lips and Darcy thought he was throwing them a kiss. She almost giggled. "They were all loose so I gathered them up. I just didn't feel right throwing them away." He offered her one and she declined. "I'm Ronald."
    Darcy nodded, then added in a low voice "But we still can't eat the store's merchandise this way."
    Roland smiled and chuckled. "So the store policy is to take perfectly good food," he popped a grape in his mouth in distracted fashion, "And just throw it away? Does that seem right to you, Miss...?" His dark blue eyes were both sad and curious.
    "Darcy. Darcy Simmons." She dimpled, then remembered her task. "It's store policy, sir, and we do it to protect the customers from what could be unclean items."
    Ronald startled her by peering closely at the grape, as if applying X-ray vision to it. "Looks clean to me. Who wrote that silly policy?" He squared his shoulders and stood at mock attention.
    Darcy took a short breath. He certainly was tall and strong-looking... "I'm not sure. Maybe the company president?" Darcy felt Roland's eyes come back to her and she felt flustered.
    Popping the last few grapes into his mouth at one time, Roland chewed quickly and swallowed. "I have it on good authority that the man is a loopy doodyhead."
    Darcy burst out laughing, then covered her mouth and tried to stop. Roland kept his eyes on her and joined her in laughing like kids sneaking into the cookie jar. "I wouldn't say that, sir!"
    Roland pondered that with great seriousness. "Why not. Is he going to find out?"
    Darcy shook her head, her hair flowing softly with the motion. "Not from me!" She found herself turning to stand next to Roland, who leaned against the strawberry display. They looked at all the produce around them, then as if on cue, at each other.
    "Look at all this food. How much goes to waste, you think?"
    Darcy straightened quickly. Roland noted how she moved and how tall she was when animated. "I know exactly how much! I've been tracking wastage for my college thesis to see if I could come up with a plan to use the throw-aways for local farms or..." She stopped. "Uh, well, I guess that's, uh, not interesting...Store stuff, you know." She looked contrite.
    "It's very interesting...to me. Why don't you bring it up to the store manager or someone higher up in the company? It seems like you have a great idea there."
    Darcy fumbled for a moment, then mumbled "I'm not sure I should. I'm new here and all..."
    Roland plucked a stray strawberry from its bin, looked it over carefully then offered it to Darcy, who found herself taking it and eating it. "Suggest your ideas, Darcy, because it's the right thing to do. Thanks for the warning." Darcy watched him walk to the register, pay a few dollars and walk out, an intriguing man with a small smile on his lips.
    A few days later, two envelopes were given to Darcy, from Mason R. Davies. The first had a letter asking her to develop a food reclamation project for the 37 stores in the Davies Corporation chain. The second had a handwritten note that said simply and perfectly: "Dinner?"
    Darcy laughed and that special thrill ran through her. Of course the note was signed... by Loopy Doodyhead.


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Gil C. Schmidt has been a regular submitter to Yesteryear Fiction since the early days when it was a daily magazine. His story "Initial Quantum State" is also featured in his book "Thirty More Stories."