NervousMan and the Bag of Chips

The men drumming the drum circle in the park came all at once to an ending. A climax of sorts to their playing which concluded with a big group BEAT and then a pause and then laughter from the drummers.

NervousMan opened his eyes and looked around at the lush green trees and the beautiful grass which shined brightly in the clear day's sunshine.

"Ugccchhh!! I hate that beat!" said someone next to NervousMan.

NervousMan felt nervous. He looked over to the seat next to him on the bench. A man had sat down next to him.

"That pounding pounding pounding oh it drives me crazy!"

Why had the man come to the park and sat in front of the music if he did not want to hear it?

"When do they ever play jazz or some classical music? Why not form an ensemble? It seems like all the music nowadays if they ever play it is around a beat. Boom! Boom! Boom!"

NervousMan glanced at the man. His clothes did not seem to fit him and his hands were chapped and red.

"I'm Ned" said the man and offered NervousMan his hand. NervousMan shook it and it felt sweaty and a little cold.

"Nice to meet you," said NervousMan. NervousMan felt nervous. Maybe it wasn't safe to shake the man's hand. But NervousMan wanted to be nice.

NervousMan saw a line of people carrying boxes, over by the concrete steps where the musicians played. The line of people went to a car where there were more people retreiving boxes.

One of the people opened the boxes and started pulling out bright green packages that looked like bags of potato chips. Other boxes looked like they had fruits and vegetables and greens in them.

"Oh good... EATS!" said Ned and got up from the bench and walked as fast as he could over to the boxes. NervousMan noticed that the man had a limp but got around fairly quickly.

NervousMan cautiously got up and stepped slightly closer to the people with the boxes. What was this? What was going on?

A young woman gathered together bags of chips from several boxes, placing them in a larger box on one of the benches. A small group of people waited behind her and then another man appeared and put another box down next to the big box. He opened it up and inside there were carrots that looked like they had just come from the farm.

"Hi" said the woman who stood next to the large box. "I'm Jenny". She offered her hand.

"Hi" said NervousMan and looked down. Then he looked up. Then to the side.

"I was going to ask you if you're homeless but I don't think you are,"

"I have a place," said NervousMan. "I came out today".

NervousMan glanced over at Ned who was going through the boxes and humming a tune to himself. NervousMan felt nervous.

"Well, that's okay," said Jenny and turned back to the box. "Would you like some chips?" She held out a couple green bag of chips to NervousMan and smiled.

"Sure," said NervousMan.

"We're here every Saturday between 3 and 4. Come and join us if you like". Jenny smiled again.

"Okay," NervousMan said. He looked at the chips.

"...or help out if you want," Jenny said and smiled again.

"Okay," said NervousMan again softer and more dreamily. "Help out... help... out" he thought inside.