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Sparkling Swirl
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Pull out a cart of your own from the queue and head to where you remembered most of the canned stuff being. The closest to the exit is where the peanut butter and other bottled condiments are, and they're...mostly gone. The shelves aren't quiet empty yet, which is fortunate, but they're definitely close. Still you grab what you can. In the next aisle over there's the fruit preserves and jams and stuff, and there's next to nothing left. Once again, you grab what you can. Next up, after a near-collision with another shopper who's looking quite distressed, there's the canned meat, a few aisles over, and unsurprisingly is also pretty sparse. There's some canned chicken left, and one or two cans of various fish, and you grab it and keep going. Further down the isle there're also some canned beans, mushrooms, and soup, which you also grab a few of. After that, you head down another couple aisles to where the canned vegetables and pickled stuff is. It's a lot less empty than the others, but at the same time, looking at your cart, you might be running out of arm- and back-strength to carry all of it, so you still only grab a couple cans, not really paying attention to what they are besides different from each other. Finally, you turn around and head over to the other side of the store, to pick up dry seasonings and spices. It's fairly untouched, compared to how barren some of the rest of the store is, and the products are all reasonably small, so grab a few. Salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, cayenne, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, cumin, ginger, mustard, oregano, paprika, turmeric, lots of stuff.
There isn't much of a line at cashiers, even though there's only a couple, since you think nobody's actually gone to check out since you entered the store. Everybody else presumably has a car and doesn't need to worry about how much they're getting. Still, you grab a soda from the little cooler-thing and a chocolate bar from the rack that's attached to the check out lane, and start unloading you smaller haul. The cashier gives you a tired smile, and starts swiping items *crazy* fast. It's *this* guy. You didn't recognize him immediately, since he shaved his beard and was gone for a while, but it's always amusing to have him as your cashier since he apparently has, like, superhuman checkout skills. He's done swiping and bagging your stuff in what feels like no time flat, even though you ended up with two full bags of stuff. As well as a pretty big charge...
You reach around to your back pocket, retrieve your wallet, and open it slowly, dreading the moment. You forgot to grab enough cash. You *really* hope the card reader is working, somehow. You pull out your card, and put in the card reader, filled with agonizing anticipation.
Card could not be read.
Two more times, and that's all it said. I looked up at the cashier forlornly, his face belying his solemn consideration, before waves me off with a quick, quiet, "Take it. I'll pay for you."
You smile, but contain your gratefulness to a likewise quick nod. You grab the bags (both heavy enough to strain your arms and pinch the creases of your palm). You exit the store and walk back home, the world just a little more awake than before. Still, nothing of note really happened up until you got back to the apartment, when you saw a couple of your neighbors, mister and misses Georgiev, packing up there car. You wave at them, and they wave back, faces confused with a mixture of happiness and sadness. They're probably bugging out somewhere. Not an unreasonable response, I guess. They've always seemed like the kind of people who'd have a bunker in the Ozarks or something.
Creaking open the gate and walking back inside, you notice that the inside of the building feels warmer than before. That's going to get really annoying later, you bet. Back up the stairs and down the hall and you're in apartment once again. Now that your eyes had adjusted to daylight, it's definitely dark, so you pull your curtains and open up the windows to let in some sun and a breeze, before unpacking all your groceries.
In the distance, you hear the local church bell ringing, and are about to ignore it when you realize, your oven's clock is off, so you mentally scramble to commit the number of rings to memory. It's seven'o'clock, apparently. Huh. You're kind of surprised your mom hasn't called you yet, you imagine she'd be worried, and she's usually up by now. You think checking on her is probably worth the phone charge, so you dial her up, only to realize that you're an idiot, and are confirmed by the failure to connect message from your phone. The cell towers are probably down. Wouldn't be weird if the phone lines were having trouble too, you guess.
Wait.
You work at a call center.
You...probably don't need to show up for work today.
You sit down, drinking your soda and eating your chocolate. You feel like the last bit of wool's been taken out of your brain. Maybe you had low blood sugar or something. Your headache's back a bit, but it's less than before.
[What's the first thing you do with the rest of your morning?]
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