Aisle 3

Today just needs to hurry up and be over. Everything is just going wrong. Today should have just happened. The flowers should have been right, the casket should have closed " damn Peter for having to take his entire Beanie Baby collection with him to the other side. No, I shouldn’t think like that. But really, the stupid coffin would not close. It wasn’t even anywhere near closing. 

If only that had been the worst of it. Pretty much, everything that can go wrong with a funeral had. I had to get out of that miserable funeral home before someone came to tell me that Peter was rising from his coffin as a zombie, accompanied with 250 zombie Beanie Babies.

I needed a drink. Something effective. Something like whiskey.

That may have been the reason for coming to this ridiculous excuse of a grocery store, but while I am here I might as well get some food and milk and paper towels. I can’t remember if we have any paper towel. Peter and I. Peter is always using paper towels.

I pass the greeter, who is way too friendly. He must be drunk. There is no way that senile old man loves his job enough or is that good of an actor. He shouldn’t drink while at work. Peter would have let him have it if he were here.

I go through every aisle, just like Peter always tells me to.

“You never want to miss anything,” he would say. He tells me quite often to always go to the store hungry so that there would always be good snacks in the house.

Lunch meat. Peter ate all of the sliced turkey yesterday. He’ll need a good lunch tomorrow.

“That sure is a lot of lunch meat ma’am,” the butcher commented. He looked like he hadn’t showered in weeks. “I hope you’ve got someone to help you eat it all.”

“Oh, it’s for my husband’s lunch.” Not that it was any of his business.

“How long you been married?” the nosey kid asked.

“Forty-two year this Sunday.”

Peter is taking me to a bed and breakfast this weekend for our anniversary. We’re going to go to wine tastings and a show in the city. Peter is so romantic, even at sixty-three.

I pick up some eggs, check to make sure they are all intact. Always check the eggs, always.

I forgot Aisle 3. I have my whiskey, milk, cheese… I just need the paper towel. It has to be Bounty. Peter won’t use anything but Bounty. I reach for the single roll on the shelf. My hand freezes. It’s only an inch away but I can’t grab it. I can’t even look at it. There’s an earthquake, only nothing is falling off the shelves and no one is panicking. They are all just staring at me. Standing in the paper towel aisle.

It must not have been an earthquake. I’m shaking. I drop the basket, ignoring the fact that the eggs are now leaking out of the carton. The turkey, the paper towel, the Ding-Dongs… There’s no point for them. Peter is the only one that wants them, and he won’t be back. They all know. Everyone is staring at me as I sit, crying, in the middle of Aisle 3. They know that I am old and alone. Everyone knows.

I pick myself off the floor, pushing away the hands of the obnoxious teenage boys. I don’t need any help. I am perfectly capable of getting off the floor. I pick up my basket, removing the carton of broken eggs, and grab a roll of Bounty paper towel. Peter will only use Bounty.

Reviews

[Emily B]

a perfect story

[anyone.anywhere]

Wow-powerful, and so sad. Great write

[Holly O'Brien]

:( wow!! this is wonderfully written and progressively sad.... I loved every description and the way the story starts and then closes out....a very good write♥

[Truman S. Booth]

Touching. I especially liked the POV, and that it was in present tense to accentuate the narrator's scattered memory. The length was perfect, the organization was brilliant, and the timing you used to reveal details was professional. Fabulous write.

[cfix]

This is very interesting read. I enjoyed it. Thought it was cute in places. Well written

[E. A. Fielder]

wow, that was awesome! I like how you were able to put the comical relief at the beginning and completely blind side me with the sad reality. You put the reader in the characters mind perfectly. I love this! this is my new favorite!!!!