The Paper Peddler

by Judy Hurd

2014

I barely heard the timid knocking. Since I did, I folded my laptop closed and rolled back my desk chair, made the trip down the stairs to the door and opened it.

Standing on my doorstep was the cutest little fellow holding onto the handle of a bright red wagon partly filled with old newspapers. Maybe four years old, dressed in Osh-Kosh coveralls he’d about outgrown, a blue, stripped tee shirt, tennies, and no socks. A towhead with bright blue eyes in an earnest face.

“Do you want to buy a newspaper?” he asked, staring up at me.

I stepped out to look up and down the block. Not a soul in sight. Then the light turned on in my head. The new family a couple doors down. They had moved in several weeks earlier. I’d seen them in their yard a few times, waved, but hadn’t as yet taken the opportunity to introduce myself. They had two children, the other a girl, looked a year or two older than this small-fry entrepreneur. I squatted down and thumbed through his papers. He watched as if I might sneak one from his wagon. They were a collection of the local free advertisers tossed into every yard and the past couple weeks-worth of the town’s daily.

“How much?” I asked, amused.

“Fifty cents each or a dollar for two.”

“Quite the salesman,” I said. He’d gotten the right idea, just not the right sales pitch.

Impressed by his resourcefulness, I told him, “I’ll take two,” and watched a grin spread across his winsome face.

He shoved the dollar into his pocket when I handed it over. Then leaned down and sorted out two papers, handing them up to me. “Thanks,” he said and turned his wagon around on my stoop. I watched him hurry down to the corner just as the ice cream vendor’s truck rolled to a stop in front of a group of gathering children.

Closing the door on summer’s merry music wafting up the block, I laughed on the way back up the stairs. The little imp had the math figured in popsicles, berry, orange, or lemon for a dollar.

Same time, next day, I heard a not-so-timid knock on my front door.