A Flash Fiction Short Story Inspired by "The Orange" by Wendy Cope

The woman behind the register looks over her cat eyeglasses, she smacks her gum, glancing from the conveyor belt back to me.  

    “This all for you?” she asks.  I grab a pack of gum remembering I just ran out and set it down on the conveyor belt.  

    “Yup, just this.”  I give her a tight-lipped smile, this is what I’ve been waiting to do all this time, isn't it?  To be able to buy what I want when I want it.  Her bracelets jingle as she grabs the gum and the orange.  

I can't wait to get out of this store, it wasn't bad until the woman grimaced at me, doing so the whole time as I waited for her to ring up my total and then count out the change agonizingly slow.  

Still, later on, that’s not what I would tell you if you asked how the trip to the supermarket was in the middle of the day.  I'd tell of the way the fruit section smelled so sweet and wonderful, and a toddler, waiting with his mother behind me, picked up a quarter I had dropped and raised it up to me, smiling behind a sticky face.  

I arrive back at the office, skipping up to the second floor two steps at a time.  I find some of my coworkers are in the break room picking through sandwiches and chip bags.  

“Oh, you’re back?”  Rob says, popping the last bit of his sandwich into his mouth. 

“Hey, June,” Dave chimes.

“Look what I found, you guys.”  I pull the orange from the bag and Rob lets out a loud guffaw.  

“Right?!” I echo. 

“That is a huge orange,” Dave comments.  

And it is.  That was what caught my eye originally, the sheer size of the thing.  

I sit down and peel the orange using my hands and a plastic knife, trying to peel off large sections at once without tearing them.  

I give Rob and Dave a quarter while I keep a half.  Aside from its size, It is quite an ordinary orange and its juices end up dripping down my forearm to my elbow but I don't mind.  It makes me unbelievably happy to bite into this orange, like it never would before.  In this fleeting moment, I am happy and I realize it too.  But as I have in the past, I don't get the impression that happiness is fleeting with the moment.  In this one small dim room with my friends, afternoon rays sneak through the slats in the blinds, and orange juices drip down my elbow.  And I am happy. 

The feeling continues throughout the day, when I make dinner, walk my dog, and write letters to my mom and best friend.  It was a wonderful day, a simple day, cracks of the day were filled with giddy happiness in-between my usual routine, I write. I finish both letters the same way. 

I love you, I'm glad I exist. 

✰✰✰