15 items or less

My spouse, Daryl was taught firmly growing up: take care of yourself. No one else will ever help you, and if they do, they want something from you. Something you probably don’t want to give up.

Ever since we met I’ve been trying to reteach them. The life they’ve led so far, the one where their friends were terrible to them, hurting them, was not one they had to live with. In college they’d met new friends who loved and cared for them. They’d fed them when Daryl was starving and given them a home. I wanted to continue what their college friends had started.

The two of us, both LGBTQ (Agender, Daryl responding to he/him or them, wanting top surgery as soon as we can afford it, me also agender but more in the way of ignoring it all together, both asexuals), Daryl being full Native American, and me being disabled we’re the bingo card of minorities. We live with my parents because I’m too much trouble for one person alone! They let us live in their basement and a little bit on their first floor.

If I’m healthy and not being too scary health-wise, I sleep with my spouse down-stairs. If for some reason, whether it be that my ribs are being too painful, or I refuse to go near the stairs because the sight of them scares me to death, I have to sleep upstairs in my “hospital bed.”

My parents are incredibly kind. My father works from sun up to sun down, not just to make sure his family has everything they need but to ensure the people he’s helping have everything they need.Even when he has time off he worries that he’s letting someone fall through the cracks. My mom is my nurse but works in medicine as a lab technician as well. When Daryl is away she’s the one who ensures that I get where I need to be at night and saves me when my head drives me insane.

We were able to teach Daryl to drive and they got their driver's license. During the pandemic my father started driving less, since his work can be done at home and allowed Daryl to borrow one of their cars. It’s an amazing sense of freedom for both of us to finally be able to go to the store and help the family. Sometimes we just go for small things, like a shirt or a sketch book. During those times we don’t like bothering anyone with our small purchases, so we usually just use self checkout and exit quickly.

On this particular run I must have been showing some poor health signs (Something that happens pretty often) and Daryl was trying to rush us out of the store. We didn’t have much, just enough to carry in our arms.

When we got to the self checkout line, it was strangely long and we could tell that they were angry. Something was holding up the line. Glancing over, I saw that the manned 15 items or less checkout was rather short, so we hurried there instead.

Daryl quickly bought the things and I wandered over to the self checkout to see what was going on. Two girls, probably sisters were trying to buy a few things but it looked like they were a dollar or two short. Unsure what to do, they couldn’t decide what to put back or how they could get help.

Daryl was done paying, so I gently grabbed them. “Do you have any cash?”

Daryl took out their wallet and found some cash, but everything was in much higher dollar amounts than the girls needed.

“Keep the change,” they said, handing the change over.

Even though I was foggy, I glowed. I was so happy to see them give so readily. They rushed me toward the door.

“I love you. Thank you for helping them.”