An Incident at the Grocery Store

My wife and I were both feeling under the weather this past week, but one of us had to go to the grocery store for essentials. Since I was feeling marginally better than she was, I was the more sensible choice, so off I went.

I picked up the things I needed and was in line at the register, being rung out. I was facing the girl at the register, so the next person in line was coming toward my left side. Since I wasn't feeling well, I have to admit that I wasn't as aware of my surroundings as usual and didn't see who it was, other than registering that there was a person approaching from that side.

As I was standing there, I suddenly felt a hard impact on my left thigh. Fortunately, I had my weight solidly distributed, so I didn't lose my balance, but the impact was hard enough to hurt. So I looked up to my left to see an upscale woman, probably in her late 60's, wearing a lot of make-up and clearly artificial red hair coloring, who had just pushed her cart into my leg with as much strength as she could muster. She was still glaring down at her grocery cart after having placed her items on the conveyor belt that moves stuff up to the register. She looked a bit more irritated than when I first looked at her, then pushed her cart into my leg again as hard as she could. She wasn't able to build up as much momentum this time, so it didn't really hurt, but it was annoying. She repeated this several times, still glaring down at her cart as though it was responsible for her not moving forward, while I tried to clear my head enough to decide what to say to her, if anything. The girl at the register was busy taking my money and getting my change, so she didn't notice what was happening. I tried to think of what I could say to her to make her stop, but since I wasn't feeling well, I was in a bad mood and most of what came to mind wasn't very pleasant. I realized that saying any of the things I had in mind was unlikely to improve the situation in any way. She continued to push during the entire time I was considering my options, never once looking up from the cart.

By this time, I was more amused by her complete obliviousness than annoyed by it, so I said nothing, took my change and my groceries, and left. I took one last look back at her to see what she'd do when the resistance stopped. Her expression changed to one of satisfaction as she moved forward, still not so much as glancing at me.

I'd love to know what was going on in her mind during the whole process. I don't know if she was genuinely clueless that I was there, or if she didn't know what to say after realizing what she'd done and thought it most socially graceful to continue to appear to be unaware. My best guess is that she was focused on her holiday grocery shopping and really had no idea what she was doing. The holidays sometimes have that effect on people.

Enjoy the seasonal festival of your choice, and don't forget that however busy you are, other people are people, too!