David Huddle

Fifteen I got a job at Leggett's, stock boy, fifty cents an hour. Moved up—I come from that kind of people—to toys at Christmas, then Menswear and finally Shoes. Quit to go to college, never worked retail again, but I still really like stores, savor merchandise neatly stacked on tables, sweaters wanting my gliding palm as I walk by, mannequins weirdly sexy behind big glass windows, shoes shiny and just waiting for the right feet. So why in my seventies do Target, Lowes, and Home Depot spin me dizzy and lost, wanting my mother to find me, wipe my eyes, hold my hand all the way out to the car?