Strangers in the Aisles Exchanging Glances

My thoughts are these: if I didn't mind them being strangers, I'd make them all my friends.

Typically, I make trips to the supermarket void of any human contact. From finding products on the shelves to trading my dollars for these wares, I don't have to speak or interact with another unless I choose so. And I rarely do.

When I stopped for dinner tonight, I was still on the phone with my brother. Walking in right behind me was a lady who appeared to be about my age; she was talking on her phone.

Typically, I need to not talk on the phone while at the store. Though I have a written list of everything I need to buy, I tend to wander around the store if I'm caught up in conversation, even visiting the same aisle twice. Not only that, I don't always buy exactly what I came in for. Once, I came home with creamed corn instead of kernel.

Anyway, I noticed this lady several times within the store, both of us still on our phones. Like me, she'd pick up something, walk to the other side of the store, and return for something else that could have been picked up on the first visit. A few times, we shared knowing glances of being caught up in conversation and not paying attention to the task at hand.

Just as I ended my conversation, I found myself walking down the same aisle as her. By coincidence, she was ending her own conversation. As soon as I said, I'll talk to you later, she, in her own conversation said, Okay, I'll talk to you soon. As we put our phones away and casually laughed at our science insusceptible, logic so inflexible, she wondered aloud if perhaps we were unknowingly talking to each other on the phone. If we were, I replied, I sincerely apologize, ma'am.

Though people still are strange even when they are strangers, every once in a while, I don't mind the faces that come out of the rain.