Listen

Now my stomach hurts, as it has for days. This is the ice cream. I walk out of the house. muggy, I hear the teenagers sitting in the dark talking. They took their bench away, wanting to push them away, but in the hot summer they have returned. I walk up the small rise, startling a man with a dog. The dog scares me. The ice cream place is crowded. A woman in a tank top has ordered five milkshakes. The employees look tired. A woman in a short skirt and on the phone cuts in front of me. A man whispers his order, discussing the amount of hot fudge that is left. I order carmel instead of hot fudge. I apologize to the woman who rings me up. "Sorry for coming so late." It is almost closing. I dislike the two women in their tank tops and flirty skirts. I cross back to the neighborhood. I hear the teenagers again, as I pass in the dark. I am afraid they wil laugh at me. A fat woman alone with her ice cream.
It is the first night in months I have been in the house alone.