Overheard

The conversations you overhear in public aren’t necessarily aimed at you.  But it doesn’t mean they weren’t meant for you.

As I was entering the automatic double doors to the grocery store my mind barely registered a 40-something woman -- a store employee -- who was pushing a cart overflowing with large cardboard boxes. She had come from my right and crossed in front of me on her way out the doors.

But I took more notice of the young fellow who came from my left and then followed closely behind the woman with the cart.

I noticed the kid because I thought how young he looked. In that split second assessment I made as we passed in the doorway, I guessed this bagging and stocking job was his first job. He appeared no more than fifteen or sixteen years old. And he was a small 15 or 16. Bookish looking, with small horn rim glasses.

Anyway, as the kid was passing me I didn't turn my head, but I heard him growl, "Box-x-x-x-xy La-a-a-a-dy" toward the woman in front of him.

Then I heard the older woman giggle and say, "Ye-e-e-e-ah."

It made my day.