Has anyone been worried about Val? About a certain deficiency in her life lately? Something missing, besides last month's Reuben? I suppose not... The idea only occurred to Val herself on Thursday.
MY WEIRDO MAGNET IS ON THE FRITZ!
Well. Until Thursday. Now that magnet seems to have fixed itself. Just like FRIG II's icemaker, but with less satisfactory results.
I was minding my own beeswax on Thursday, shopping at Country Mart. I picked up bananas, then wheeled my cart/walker across the aisle to look at a 2-lb bag of lemons. I don't trust Country Mart very much for their produce. I feel safe with their bananas, and tomatoes. But the lettuce is often wilty, the giant baking potatoes have a greenish tint, and the bagged salads and shredded lettuce are often past the sell-by date. I wanted to get a look inside that net bag of lemons, past the giant paper labels on each side, to see if there was a lemon already going bad.
I sensed someone behind me. I figured they might be wanting to look at something in that area, so I put the bag in my cart and wheeled on. A glance over my shoulder showed a young girl, maybe 10-11 years old, holding a full-size bag of chips by the corner. No cart. No adult in sight. Maybe they'd sent her to get oranges or something.
My next stop was around the corner, along the main back aisle, more than halfway across the store. I stopped to look at cookies for Hick. I always try to bring him some kind of treat. You know what kind of treats he prefers. Something SWEET! I used to buy him sugar-free treats, but he ate them right along with his daily clandestine donuts from Casey's, and a candy bar every time he stopped for a Diet Mountain Dew. So I realized it was a losing battle, paying extra money for a removed ingredient, and hearing Hick harp about "It's the CARBS, Val, that I have to watch. Not the sugar. The doctor said so." That's Hick's story, and he's stickin' to it.
Anyhoo... I was looking at cookies. Hick's last pack was almost empty, the generic version of the fudge-striped shortbread cookie. I was deciding between iced oatmeal, and vanilla sugar wafers. That Little Girl came bounding toward me from the other end of the store. She was swinging that bag of potato chips to and fro, practically skipping. She passed on my right. Still no sign of a parent or adult with her. Obviously, she had not taken anything from the fruit aisle where she had been stalking me before.
A few seconds later, I sensed someone behind me again. A look over my shoulder revealed That Little Girl. Just standing about 10 feet away, swinging her chips, looking at me. Huh. Well. I guess she wanted some cookies now. I grabbed the vanilla sugar wafers off the top shelf, and wheeled on.
"Thank you." Said That Little Girl to nobody, after I had turned my back and was wheeling away. Out of the corner of my eye as I turned up the soda aisle, I saw her move to the cookie area where I had been standing. What in the Not-Heaven? Did she have the same shopping list? Why was she turning up where I was stopped?
I headed towards the front and the checkout, after getting Hick's Diet Mountain Dew, on special 3/$12 for a six-pack of 20 oz bottles. Yes. I looked over my shoulder! There went That Little Girl, galloping across the end of the aisle, swinging her potato chips. No cookies in hand.
I hesitate to call That Little Girl a weirdo. But her behavior was not quite normal. WHY would she single me out to stand behind? Twice? And not even pick up the product she was pretending to want? I blame her parent(s). THEY must be the weirdos, having taught her this behavior. If she had a special condition that made her act this way, then surely she should have been more closely supervised. ANYBODY could have snatched her and made a getaway.
It's not like That Little Girl came up to me and tried to start a conversation. She was STALKING! Then waiting. Like wanting me to see her there, like I was in her way, but not looking me in the eye when I caught her. It was like a cartoon, where the one character turns to see if someone is following, and that character stops, and acts all nonchalant.
Val is not some prey to be stalked through Country Mart! I almost hope That Little Girl was planning to snatch my purse from the cart! At least that would have been explainable behavior. Not at all weird.
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