FELICIA HEILGENDORFF

“You can’t be serious,” he said, staring at the pink diamond earrings lying on the counter.

“I’m telling you, these aren’t real. They’re fake diamonds,” the old man shrugged apologetically, having encountered similar cases before.

“But… this is all she left me!” He looked up at the old man, genuine shock in his face.

He shrugged again, clearly not changing his mind. He wasn’t paying money for fake diamonds.

“You’d hardly get ten bucks for that,” he said, as he had already told the man.

“You don’t understand…” Exasperated, he shook his head. “My ex-girlfriend took everything and this was all she left me. I have no place to go. Nothing.”

The old man shrugged a third time. “Nothing I can do.”

Still in a state of shock and in a daze, the man gathered the earrings up in his hand and left the store.

The old man sighed, shaking his head and went back to dusting off his desk. About ten minutes later, he looked towards the door. The man with the earrings had sat down on the steps to his store.

He walked over to him. “You can’t barricade my store, young man.”

The man looked up, his eyes glazed. “I don’t know where to go,” he simply said.

The old man sighed, paused a heartbeat, then pulled the door wide open. “Come in. I’ll make you some tea.”

© 2016

FFfAW, Week of September 13, 2016

Photo prompt provided by Jade M. Wong