Inspiration Words: Yes and Sidewalk
“Stop dawdling, Anne,” her mother scolded her as they walked through the aisles of the supermarket.
Anne held gently to the side of the grocery cart, keeping close, like her mom preferred.
“Can you get some of the chocolate chips from that shelf near the bottom?” While Anne grabbed a bag of chips, her mom picked up a package of pretzels.
When they were in the grocery store, Anne felt like her mom was in a carefully planned battle. Every move was executed for the smoothest possible result, and she didn’t like delays.
As Anne thought about her grocery store trips with her mom, she remembered the strategy her mom would remind her of in the car before they got out: “Now remember Anne, we want to get in, get out, and get home as quickly as possible. Here’s the list, so let’s work together to make this trip smooth!”
While her mom thought of it as a plan, Anne thought of it as a game. She liked games, and she imagined her mom and herself in a competition with the other shoppers. Once she thought of the idea of making it a game, she stopped dawdling and was quick to help her mom pick up things. Every time they arrived at the check-out line faster than the other people they had entered with, Anne gave them a winning score. According to Anne’s record, their longest winning streak was that five weeks the summer before sixth grade.
Now that Anne lived in China, she didn’t usually think of her supermarket runs as a competition. For one thing, there were too many shoppers to keep track of who entered and left at what times. But she still found her game was a good way to deal with the anxiety she felt walking into crowded Chinese supermarkets. Unlike back home, the aisles were always packed with people, and noise filled the building as people jostled for space to weigh their produce and workers shouted about new products to potential customers. And today, she would face the supermarket crowds with her new boyfriend, Johnson. They were supposed to buy some food to make dinner for themselves and another couple, who were supposed to arrive at 6 p.m. Johnson had agreed to cook Chinese food, and Anne couldn’t wait to try the dishes he would make.
Three o’clock came and went, and Johnson still hadn’t arrived at Anne’s apartment. Where are you? She started to text him, then deleted it—she didn’t want to be impatient. Instead, she picked up her book and tried to read a few more pages.
At 3:10, she checked the clock again. Read your book. She commanded herself. The supermarket is nearby. We still have plenty of time.
Every five minutes, she glanced at the clock again, and at 3:30, she finally heard the expected knock on the door. Johnson came in, a bit sweaty from the short walk from the subway.
“Hi! You made it. Are you ready to go?”
Johnson took off his shoes, slipped into some house slippers, and headed to the bathroom to wash his hands. “Do you mind if I rest for a few minutes first?”
“Sure, go ahead.” Anne glanced at the clock. A few minutes wouldn’t matter. If they left at 4:00, they should be able to get into and out of the grocery store in an hour, leaving an hour to prepare the food.
At 4:00, they were both ready to leave, and they walked to the supermarket across the street. The sidewalk was crowded with Saturday shoppers popping in and out of the tea shops, nail salons, and small restaurants as they walked down the street.
“Are you sure you don’t want to make a list before we get there? I’m afraid we might forget something.” Anne looked up at him and started to pull out her phone, where she kept her own list.
“Nah, it should be fine. We can just see what we need when we get there.”
“Okay . . .”
Once inside the building, Anne directed their steps to the top floor so they could work their way down. They walked past the dried squid and other seafood laid out in open bins. First stop was the produce area.
“Oh! Look at these grapes! They would be great to have after our meal.” Anne put them into the basket Johnson carried. “What vegetables do we need?”
“Hmm, let’s see.” Johnson glanced around at the assortment of fresh vegetables displayed on tables around him. “Maybe some spicy peppers.” He sorted through the peppers until he approved of four of them.
“Great! What’s next?”
Johnson picked up some lettuce from the vast selection of green vegetables before moving toward the deli area. As he glanced over the packaged choices, he looked around. “Isn’t there any meat that’s already cut?”
“It doesn’t look like it, and I don’t see a worker in this area. Let’s just get this one and cut it when we get home.”
“You can cut it?” Johnson looked hesitantly at Anne.
“Sure, I mean, it’s just meat.”
“I just . . . I’ve never cut meat before.”
“What?” Anne looked at her boyfriend, who still held the package of uncut meat, and craned her neck to look again for any nearby workers. “It’s fine. I can cut it if I need to. But maybe we should hurry a little bit. It’s already 4:45.”
Johnson meandered through the vegetables and ended up in the dry goods section before Anne realized they hadn’t weighed and priced the vegetables. And surely, they needed something else besides just spicy peppers and lettuce?
“Why are we looking at the noodles? Don’t you wanna finish getting the vegetables?”
“Oh, sure, we can do that. I just saw these noodles on sale over here. But I don’t know which ones we should get.”
“Let’s decide after we get the vegetables.”
When the rest of the vegetables were properly bagged, priced, and sealed, Anne directed their steps to the noodles. “All right, let’s get these noodles quickly.”
Selecting the noodles was not fast, and neither was the process of finding and choosing the right spicy sauce or finding the drink Johnson had been wanting to try.
Anne glanced at her watch. Already 5:10. This was not going well! Maybe it will only take 30 minutes to cook all the food. I can cut the vegetables and meat, and if he cooks at the same time, we’ll be done in time.
As Anne directed their steps past the hand soap and laundry detergent, Johnson stopped at the toothpaste. “I was wanting to buy some new toothpaste. I’m gonna just see what they have here.”
“But Johnson, we’re going to be late. We have to hurry home and cook dinner, or everything will be a mess! I don’t understand why this is taking so long. Can we please just go pay?”
“Oh ok, umm . . . sure.” Johnson agreed, and they found a short checkout line. As they walked back home, Anne walked at a brisk pace, leaving Johnson to match her speed. She tried to remind herself that the night was going to be fine. It doesn’t really matter if we start dinner a few minutes late, does it?
“Did you usually go shopping with your parents when you were younger?” she said in an attempt at conversation.
“Yes, usually we would go on Saturday. It was my favorite part of the week because I could spend time with my mom and dad and play with my sister. We didn’t do a lot of things all together as a family, so this was special. We would go in the morning, and my sister and I would play in a special play area while my mom and dad did most of the shopping. Then they would pick us up, and we would help pick out the fruits and vegetables. It usually took all morning. Afterwards, we would go out for lunch together.”
Anne slowed her pace and looked up at Johnson. “Oh, I see. So shopping was more of a fun family activity for you than a chore.”
Johnson nodded.
She wanted to say something more because he didn’t usually share memories like this with her. But she couldn’t think of anything to say that would justify her pushiness in the store, so she just said, “Next time, we should go earlier so we can spend more time shopping together.”
“Yeah, I’d like that.”