Accidental Observer
had a hankering for praline pecans &
so, as one with a hankering for praline
pecans will do, when the appropriate
funds are available & one has the time
to go praline pecan search,
off to the grocery he went.
the first store didn’t have exactly what
he wanted & so back in the car & the
search continued, but rather than pop
from store to store, not finding the perfect
can, like Goldilocks & the porridge,
he settled for a bag of some fancy
black pepper & cranberry pecan
concoction, which while in reality
were probably better for him, they just
didn’t hit the mark, like the pralines
which he’d envisioned in his head
(and eventually in his stomach), only
a half hour or so before the
black pepper purchase.
rewind to right before he went up to
the register to buy the nuts & you
find him walking down an aisle in
which at the end, only a few paces away,
there stood a little girl, a toddler, pushing
one of those teeny lil’ carts which
kids are able to push around beside their
parents.
now, her cart was pretty damn full &
the little girl had somehow got it
teetering, so now at this point she is
struggling to keep the cart from completely
falling over & the squealing scream/cry
that only a little girl can muster, starts to
emit from her mouth simultaneously
with a reddening of the face, which is the
pre-balling cry period that children
seem to have.
our praline-seeker, he sees the child screaming
& ponders the scenario, that if her ran to
help the child, the parent might not
appreciate a stranger in the midst of their
most precious, while on the other hand,
it’s perfectly possible that she will let the
cart fall over & cause her some kind of
pain---either way, the child is not the
responsibility of the praline-seeker,
so he simply watches the event unfold
as he continues down the aisle in her
direction at a casual walking pace.
within seconds, the father & his even
younger daughter (being dragged by her
arm round the corner of the other aisle)
come to help out the struggling child &
suddenly her screaming stops, with all
the pre-balling cry reddening
disappearing, as if nothing had happened---
the father looks up, smiling a stressed
out smile at the praline-seeker and
gets down to the level of his child,
brushing hair out of her face &
telling her it’s going to be alright.
as all three of them move on round the
corner to the next aisle, our praline-
seeker stops & decides on the black
pepper & cranberries.
Copyright © Andrew Delapruch | Year Posted 2012
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