Tag: making ends meet

The parking lot was empty.  But that wasn’t unusual, partly because it was midnight and partly because, since the sparkling new Saver General came to town, Dan Burns’s General Merchandiser rarely had any customers anymore.  Dan learned with dread the coming of the Saver General and he knew that, slow or fast, the death of his store was probably imminent.  Before he had closed up earlier that evening, he stood looking out the front door onto the empty lot.  It was getting cold.  Winter was certainly coming and in a high desert climate it would be dry and cold for months.  Dan didn’t mind that too much.  In the not-so-distant past, the chill would keep the townspeople coming in for heaters, batteries, warm socks, and hatchets to break icy ponds so livestock could drink.  Now the cold seemed to make things more desolate and hopeless.  Dan turned from the front door and left out the back to his truck.  At least the truck was paid for.  That would help him survive a bit longer.  Probably.