We're Open For Broken Hearts

The neighborhood sits where the old city meets the new one, and the minimart at its entrance is also where the neighbors run into one another. The clerks serve whoever comes through the door: a child in tears, a couple still arguing, a man whose business went under, someone who moved to the city and knows nobody here. Selling groceries takes up part of the day. The rest of it goes on listening, talking a discouraged customer into trying again, and keeping company with people who have nobody else nearby. The customers are mostly from the surrounding blocks and they come in most days for something small.