Infinite Ink

Ending the week in style

The weekend is a clever creature. It arrives unannounced and slips away unnoticed. It charms you and harms you by turns; one minute it fills you with energy to seize the day, the next minute it plunges you into the depths of idle uselessness. This weekend has been kind so far. I count the weekend to have started the very second you are free from school or work. If you don't have school or work, then rest assured, I do not consider that your entire life is a weekend. I know better than that because It's always the weekend in my mind. It's just that life gets in the way. 

Today being Saturday, it was a day when Baba loaded Mama, me and two bananas into the car for a long drive. The two bananas were for snacks. Personally, I think it's to reduce the number of food purchases we make while on the go. I don't mind. Yay and alhamdulillah for potassium in a sweet package. There were also several cans of diet soda in the back. They usually go unaccounted for until one of us craves a poisonous bubbly swirl-and-swallow. Until we remember them, they roll around in a forlorn fashion and dream of the day they will finally be relieved from duty. 

The drive was to the halal grocery store. I carried the weighty responsibility of pushing the shopping cart around. Don't get me wrong. It includes making the fine calibrations required to avoid collision with other carts, navigating the aisles of the store in order to keep up with clearance offers and deals as well as each parent as they float here and there to pick things up. Baba has a special forward leap that he makes when he spots a clearance sign. It's as if he's racing anyone who might have seen the sign as well. Turn your back on Mama and by the time you look back, she has wandered all the way down the aisle and is on the verge of disappearing into the next one. As for me, my heart leaps up when I behold, Reese's peanut butter cups in the aisle, so was it when my life began, so is it now I am a (wo)man. (Sorry, Mr. Wordsworth.)  

Are my parents the only ones who get excited in the fruits and vegetables section, not to mention when they're around the pickles and spices bins? I'd really like to know. Also, can you guess where we went next? Don't worry, you can skip that and find the answer in the next chapter.