Out there Where the Ocean is Blue

“There’s so many to choose from.” Her eyes were scanning through the candy and the different snacks located under the register and the words just seemed to slip through her lips without a thought. She looks at me then – when she’s done glaring at a bag of goldfish and she’s picked up the bag of gummi bears next to them and placed it with her other things on the conveyor belt – like she was mad I didn't answer her and I don’t know what to do so I just shrug but I just somehow know that won’t be enough for her. And I’m right because after I ring her up and say a quick “thirty-one fifty is your total.” She just stares at me, her eyes narrowing slightly.

I didn't know if it was really something to get mad over and right when I’m about to say I’m sorry or something else that I shouldn't have to say, she pulls a fifty out of her purse and hands it to me, picks up the plastic bag, and says “keep the change.” And I’m like: damn, because does anyone still do that anymore? In this economy – where I can barely keep my crappy bag-boy/ register jockey job – who was she to be able to do that? Someone that talks to herself and expects a person to answer, that’s who.