The Stories, The Poems, and The Prose of Nadine Sellers

The supermarket neon light falls upon dead eyes, blue, gray, somewhere between angry and sad. A tall woman drags a lifeless child like a ragdoll on the vinyl tiles. Suddenly his feet move to try to catch up with her elegant limbs; a moan escapes his rueful lips. Looking around for witnesses to her misery, she yanks the boy with unspent rage bursting from her silent scowl. A man passes her by, he walks past the toddler, reaches for a desired item and pushes his cart toward the rest of his journey. Youth screams an unfulfilled promise from the woman's tight mouth, as if shrapnel tore across her plexus. She scans the shelves looking for some elusive goods, pulling her uncooperative burden alongside her long wool coat.

The gaunt cheeks of the child suck air as if it were devoid of oxygen. With her other hand, his mother grabs at the loose cloth around his waist and stands him upright for a second, he cries out in a thin voice from far within hungry ribs; skin hunger, love hunger beg the adult above, with no hope for either. And the boy drops to the floor unwilling to continue his daily march through distress.

The mother scoops up her squirming progeny and for a moment, their faces are combined in common agony, two bony ivory ovals, pierced by gray flashes and open mouths. A hollow whimper blends their pain from anonymous scars. The electronic eye opens the glass doors wide to the blank parking lot that swallows the matched pair, empty handed and disillusioned.

One giggly girl runs circles around a short dark man. One little boy scampers silently after her, teetering over his oversized jeans. She stops and sits him down on the store flooring to roll up his cuffs as he wiggles noisily. A black haired woman turns and looks directly at them, she cocks her head and grins, they connect with smiles so large that their dark eyes and fleshy mouths form slits that span their entire round faces. The girl's earrings throw gold darts against her copper skin. People smile.

A stocky man unloads the grocery cart onto the cashier's conveyor belt as his partner engages in counting the dollar amount with great concentration. The toddler's plump hand creeps up his mother's skirt and grabs a fistful of flowery print, he jerks the fabric and offers a wide mouthful of baby teeth when she peers down at him. Her upheld palm signals an end to the playfulness. She resumes her careful account and studies the dollars and change in her left hand.

Wordlessly the father picks up the youngest child and buries his mustache in the fat little neck to arouse uncontrollable gurgles from him. The dainty girl fondly pats her sibling's leg and quietly helps her mother to bag the food as it pours onto the stationary platform. Holding up a jar of peanut butter, the girl exclaims joyful words in Spanish, no translation needed for such elation. The four of them depart toward a scarred old truck with arms full and unconscious laughter.

The boy positions himself awkwardly behind the seat, his sister talks to him as she slides in after him with the bags of food. A stout brown hand slips around the woman's hip and comes to curve upon her fullness, she spins and laughs at her man, scolding him as she hurls herself in the bench seat of the truck. The kids join in the play. The motor sputters and chokes loudly, over the volley of cackles in the cab.