The Grocery Store

She enters the store with her oversized purse clinging to her shoulder clutching a squirreling child. Even though she looks flustered, she maintains a smile on her face as she ends her conversation, placing her cell phone and child into the orange Fry’s grocery cart. Taking a deep breath, she proceeds to the closest isle, the frozen foods section. Family size frozen pizza, broccoli, and Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia icecream begin to occupy the empty cart. Some of her favorite lean cuisines and sugar free popsicles join the basket as she continues to the fresh meat deli department. A pound of ground beef for her husbands grill on game days and ten already prepared chicken tenders with macaroni salad and fries are crucial to her family’s survival.
The little girl who has sat so well behaved in the cart reaches into the newly added goody bad and helps herself to one of the chicken fingers. Ordering a few more deli products for the children’s lunchtime sandwiches, the women reaches into her bag and checks off some items on her list. Turning her cart towards the chips and beverage isle, she wonders why she always chooses the cart with the crooked, unaligned wheels that perpetually drives sideways no matter how hard you try to direct it in a straight line. Reduced fat ruffles, ranch dip, salsa, and two, twelve packs of a diet soda are added to the cart as she advances to the fresh fruit and vegetables.
Her daughters little hands reach for the shiny, red apples beneath her as she helps her mom toss them into the clear plastic bag. A few more items are added on the way as she presses on with her crooked cart towards the front of the market. Refraining from the self-checkout, which she has always found to be more of a hassle than meets the eye, she begins to unload her grocery items. Pulling out her visa and entering in her home telephone number in hopes of a discount, she signs her name, places her receipt in her oversize bag and exchanges a smile with her daughter who still sat content in the cart grasping yet another chicken finger in those bite-size hands.