Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk

Lillian stops at a bodega to get a hostess gift for Wendy, picking out potato chips and mazapan. Lillian knows that what she is buying will charm Wendy but does not know what kind of flowers to bring. She asks the clerk, CJ, what he would want someone to bring him, and he gets what appears to be a pot full of dirt; it holds an amaryllis bulb. He says that while the cut flowers will die in a week, this plant will be beautiful through the middle of winter. The two converse, and CJ explains that he’s working in the store to give his parents the night off, that they’ve been working ever since coming to New York from the Philippines 20 years ago, and that he worries about them staying open all night since the neighborhood is getting bad and wants to move away. Lillian is moved; when she takes out her wallet to pay and realizes that she still has nearly $100, she gives it all to CJ as a New Year’s gift.

Lillian digresses into a story about the time that she was invited onto a public access program called Where They’ve Been and Where They’re Going, and the