Recycled
written by: Dawn DeBraal
Agatha Leary sat in the bentwood rocker on her front porch. It was a safe place to watch the world go by. Little Billy Ponto rode his two-wheel bike with training wheels. Best his father not take them off just yet, Agatha thought as she watched each training wheel hit one side and then the other. Billy stopped dutifully at the corner and turned his bike around.
“Hi, Mrs. Leary,” he waved and raced by.
“Hello, Billy. Looking good,” not really, but Agatha was not one to look on the negative side. Brenda Trevor walked by. Agatha knew her mother did not see her leave the house, because she would never let her wear her skirts that short or her blouse that unbuttoned.
“Hey, Mrs. Leary,” Brenda waved.
“Hello, Brenda.” Agatha wanted to say your skirt is too short, and your blouse is too open, but she didn’t. She had learned long ago to keep negative opinions to herself.
A young man stepped up onto her porch, and Agatha’s heart pounded in her chest.
“May I help you?” The man looked nervous as he pulled the cap on his head further down his face.
“Get inside,” he told her. Agatha eased her old frame off the rocking chair and walked in ahead of the man who appeared to have a gun in his coat pocket.
“Where do you keep your cash?” the young man barked. Agatha walked into the kitchen, took the top off her Chicken cookie jar, and pulled out a wad of dollar bills tightly wound in a rubber band. The man took it and put it in his coat pocket.
“Are you hungry?” Agatha asked.
“Why do you think I am robbing you?” The man blushed and lowered his head.
“I make a mean pancake, and I have homemade strawberry jelly. I would love to make you some pancakes.” Agatha took the flour out of the cupboard. The robber’s mouth dropped open.
“Why would you do that for me?”
“You look hungry, and I am a bit hungry too. We both could use some pancakes and fresh strawberry jam.” The man sat at her kitchen table and watched in silence as Agatha added all the ingredients to her pancake batter and took out her griddle and plugged it in.
“So, what drives you to steal?”
“What?” The young man was taken aback by this woman’s candor.
“You heard what I asked. Why are you doing this?”
“I lost my job; I have nowhere to go.”
“I am lonely here; I have that big upstairs and no one here with me. I could use a renter.”
“Don’t you get it, lady? I have no money.”
“It would be free, of course, until you got a job, and then I will ask ten percent of what you make.” Agatha sprinkled some water on the griddle, which sizzled. Then she took out a ladle and made perfect pancakes.
“Why would you do that?”
“Because we can all use a hand up. I need someone to help me around the house, shovel the sidewalk come wintertime, and haul my garbage to the street.”
“What’s your name?”
“Agatha Leary.”
“Agatha, I’ve never met anyone like you.”
“I take that as a compliment,” she smiled at the young man and flipped the cakes. Then, she took the jar of jam from the refrigerator. Agatha placed a stack of pancakes in front of the man he dove into them like he hadn’t eaten in days.
“Slow down, friend. You can have as many pancakes as you can eat.” He looked up from his shoveling in of food and put his fork down. Then he took the money from his pocket and placed the roll of bills on the table.
“Put that away. I will not steal from you.”
“Thank you, but you can keep that. I expect you to haul my trash down to the street, it’s garbage pickup day. What’s your name?”
“John.”
“Alright, John, when you are finished, I will take you upstairs. There are three perfectly fine bedrooms and a bathroom up there. We can turn one room into a living room for you. I think this arrangement will work nicely. All I ask is that you find honest work. John blinked, he couldn’t believe this woman, he put his dishes in the sink and followed Agatha upstairs. As she promised, there was a bathroom and several rooms upstairs.
“I think this room would make a nice sitting area, don’t you? I can buy a television set, and we can set it up right over in that corner.”
John was dumbfounded. The woman talked to him as if he hadn’t tried to rob her. He pulled the comb from his jacket.
“I wasn’t going to hurt you. I don’t have a gun, just this comb.”
“That was resourceful.” She wanted to lecture him about how foolish it was; he could have been killed pretending he was armed, but that was not her nature.
“Agatha, may I call you that?”
“Please, do.”
“I don’t deserve to be treated like this. I was intending to rob you.”
“But you didn’t. I had a boy once, a son. He died trying to rob someone; they shot him. He wasn’t a bad person, just did a bad thing. I always imagined that if someone had offered him kindness, he would still be with me today.”
“I am sorry for your loss.” John looked around at what this woman was offering.
“My mother died when I was a little boy, only six years old.”
“I am sorry for your loss.” Agatha put her hand on his shoulder. “I can’t be your mother, but I can help you out the way a mother would.”
“I am ashamed of what I did to you.”
“I forgive you, John.” He turned away, embarrassed by the tears that rolled down his cheeks.
“Thank you.”
“Well, I suspect you need to get your things to move in. I will go down to the hardware store and get some keys made. You can never be too careful. Their eyes met, and they both laughed.
“Can you drop me in town? I’ve been couch-surfing, and a friend of mine has my duffel bag.”
“I can do better than that. I will wait for you.” John rode with her to his friend’s house, and Agatha waited in the car. He threw his duffel bag in the back seat.
“Next stop, hardware store.” She invited John to come in.
“Good day, Mr. Fenton.”
“Mrs. Leary, what can I do for you?”
“I need a set of keys made for my new tenant, John.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He looked at John. “You are fortunate to have met up with Mrs. Leary; she will take good care of you.”
“I have already found that to be true.” A customer came through the front door.
“I am looking for information. I am stripping an old credenza and need to find the best product.” John piped up.
“Have you ever tried Strip Away? It’s non-toxic, and it does the job well.” Mr. Fenton looked surprised.
“He is right, I have found that one to be the most popular, check aisle five.”
“Are you looking for work? I could use someone like you around here. My employee decided to go to college and left me shorthanded.”
“It just so happens I am looking for a job. I need to pay Mrs. Leary her rent.” John said.
“Here’s an application. Anyone she is willing to rent to is someone I know I can trust.” The store owner handed John an application. “Here’s your keys, Mrs. Leary. Make sure to try them when you get home.”
Once outside, Agatha handed the keys to her new tenant and started the car.
“I can’t believe it. You are my guardian angel.” John said.
“I have put my faith in you, John. Make sure it is safe.”
“I will, Agatha. You will never regret giving me a chance.”
Agatha sat in her bentwood rocker on her front porch, thinking of her long-gone son, Benny. In the fading daylight, she watched John maneuver the garbage and recycling bins to the end of her driveway. A smile crept across her face as it reminded her that some garbage could be recycled. John came to her, thinking he was garbage, and that was what she’d done with the young man, recycled him, giving him a chance at a new life.
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