The Strawberry Chapter 29

The Strawberry Chapter 29

by Katherine Aguilar

This chapter goes over the progression from throwing seeds everywhere to now, seeing if I allowed that seed to grow in me, or realizing which seed did absolutely no good, to where I held on to it like it was precious, as if it were a trinket. Now going through my trinket box and seeing and reflecting, and separating the bad from the good.

The good ones, I am writing in the book. The bad ones, I am not even sharing. I am grabbing them from the trinket box and throwing them in the trash, where they belong in the first place.

Progression

My writing is not progressing into a confession. I am sharing good trinkets as I go through my box. I will, at times, jump from the past to the present as I write. For it will be wherever my mind leads me, for I am looking inside my trinket box. As when you really go through the trinket box. Items get all mixed. They are not stacked in an orderly fashion. If I repeat something, it will mean that particular trinket was picked up a few times in my box. So it is important to keep a place in your box if you so like.

Did Bad people of pockets of good inside themselves?

This story goes way back. I believe I was ten years old and my brother was eleven. He was the one who was more like my dad than he would probably like to admit. We were the children of the past generation of simplier lives. We would ride our bikes around the neighborhood. Climb in the trees, most of the time we would be playing outside.

Down the block was a little convenience store. When you walked in, it was dark and dingy. All the groceries in the store looked old. Still, a few people went inside. We wouldn’t go to the store. We would always go to the little

store across the street, which was old, but since it was in the neighborhood, it was convenient for people to stop by. People would go into that store. I didn’t know this until my brother came running in one day to the house. Saying “Hey, Kathy! I found a way for us to get a hamburger and fries!” I asked him what we have to do? “ He said, "Just cut some grass in the backyard,” I said, "with what we do not even have a lawn mower.". He said, "Do you have scissors?” I thought it was wild. Scissor!?" It so happened I did. He said, "Hurry up, let's go." My brother was always getting me into these little adventures. We got there and, lo and behold, it was the convenience store with the old groceries; it happened to have a burger shop in the back. When we arrived, the man looked very serious and was from another country—he looked very surprised that my brother and I had arrived. I think he originally told my brother he would give us hamburgers and fries to cut the grass for burger and fries if we cut the grass my brother would not return.

Because he didn’t expect my brother to return. The man pointed to the back of the store, where there was at least a foot of grass covering the store lot. I looked at it like telling my brother, “Are you crazy? We only have scissors!”

I do think the man also thought we were crazy and that we would just leave after we saw the back lot. My brother said "sure we got this". My brother and I cut that back lot with scissors. I laugh as I write because it was one of the most ridiculous childhood memories. After we finished, he gave us burgers and fries. I really think he thought we were crazy. He never expected we would actually complete the task. When we were finished. We went and sat and ate them at the counter, the best burger and fries. Still, the whole process was crazy! The man was speaking in a different language. I can only imagine what he is telling the person on the phone about these crazy children eating burgers at the counter at his convenience store.

He said after we were finished, we could go back and have a burger and fries for a dollar in the future that we didn't have to cut anymore grass to get burgers. We didn’t go back to the convenience store often because it took a while to raise a dollar. Still, the man knew who we were. There were no bad memories of this man. The convenience store closed. What happened to them we would not know until we were in high school. We had moved to a better part of the Dallas area. We saw a sign that showed a burger shop and a gas station. We decided to get burgers since they were on sale.

As we walk in that same man saw us. I think that man was going to drop his phone because there were again. It basically freaked him. He remembered us, and we told him. We remember he was nice to us when we were little and remember that his burgers were the best. He remembered his promise. For even after the years past. He only charged use a dollar for a burger and fries. Even though we were not in high school and could afford them. Months later we saw in the news that same man was planning something really bad. I think my brother and I about fell off the couch.

When we saw the news, all we could think of was the burgers he had given us when we were little. How could he be so bad?

We saw him as good as children with innocent eyes, for all children will see the good and not the bad.

Can bad people find them questioning themselves?

This story goes much later in time, more around the time I was writing started writing the The Strawberry. It was a normal day at work. I had my coffee, and my meditation music was on at work. It was a quiet early evening. At that time I had talked with a lady about her faith because she

had told me her mother was in the hospital and I told her to pray and that God sends angels be with her mother during the surgery.

A tall African American man had heard me tell this woman this, and I am not sure if he saw it as an opportunity to take advantage of my faith to help him out of that on an issue, or did he really believe. Not quite sure. Either way, I spoke freely. Pretty soon, I do not think that what he intended for one thing turned into another. He was confused, and his interfaith was starting to be drag on, and he realized he may have made mistakes. He wanted to know more and said he would think more about it. He didn’t believe God would help him in his situation. I asked him. “He said the money was being held up and he needed a room,” I told him. I am not God. But I would help him. I paid for his room. He said he would pay me back.

Remember when I mentioned doing things and forgetting. I only tell this as an example. I never expected the money back, nor did I care. It was done and I let go.

It was a year later the man who returned. I didn’t even remember him. He had to tell me about himself, actually, for me to remember. I had asked him, “What did I do for you?” He said you bought me a room, and we talked about Jesus. I had to dig really deep to remember. He said he has thought about that time ever since. He said he started to read the Bible, and he gave me double what I gave. He said I never thought someone would do that for him.

He said he still reads the Bible to understand. He left, and the ladies behind him asked, " Do you know who he is? I told them I had no clue.

They said he is a very bad man.

I guess this is part of wiring in my brain. I am still looking at people with childlike eyes. I didn’t see the bad.

Most of the time, people can see bad right off the bat. I can too. It is right in front of you. This made me also realize that people who have come off as good can be bad.

This chapter was written differently, for that is how the words came to my mind to write. So I move from one writing style to the next. Maybe that is not how writing a book is supposed to be. This is how my words flow from my mind.