Grocery Tale (StoredStory # 3)

I used to work at a grocery store. One slow morning, I was having a conversation with Janice, the Assistant Customer Service Manager, while she was standing at a register during dead time. A lady wearing a striped button shirt with snugly fitted brown denim pants pushed up to the register with a large cart of groceries. As the customer began to put groceries on the surveyor belt, Janice and I continued our conversation in hushed tones. Meanwhile, the lady got on her all fours as though she were about to pay homage to the grocery cart. This didn’t really grab my attention as I realized she was pulling out a large bag of dog food from the lower level of the cart. As I soon learned, timing makes all the difference in the world. Just as Janice finished her tale, I exclaimed rather loudly in reply, “Oh wow!” The lady, who was tugging at the large dog food bag with her back side raised in the air, turns her head and gives me a scorching gaze. Janice chuckled, and I … well, I can think of a number of things I probably wanted to do (like flee the scene), but I just kept my mouth shut and my eyes down and bagged the damned groceries.