Alphabet Soup

Juxtapose

Juxtapose

        Mary pushed her nearly overflowing shopping cart towards the checkout after she made sure that she had remembered to get something for everyone in her family. Each of her grandkids would receive three toys each. Even though she had already spent several hours knitting them hand made sweaters in her creaky old rocking chair, Mary was determined to spoil her darling grandchildren even more this year. Frankie and Richard were both getting toy cars, Carol would get a little microphone, and Betty would get a Barbie doll. Hopefully these gifts would make the holiday extra special for them. If all else failed, hopefully the tins of cookies could make their lives a bit sweeter.

        Shopping for her two daughters, her son, and their spouses had been much harder for Mary. After her husband Joseph lost his long battle against heart disease more than a decade ago, Mary didn’t have much help picking gifts for the adults. There was no way she would ask them herself; that would ruin the surprise. This year, she decided to make identical scrapbooks for them. They had all gone to Hawaii in June to celebrate Mary’s 80th birthday, so that would give her plenty of material to work with. If anything, Mary had too many amazing memories to choose from thanks to that trip. It wouldn’t be easy to stuff them all into one scrapbook, especially since she had taken at least a hundred photos there. After miraculously managing to get copies of her favorites thanks to the help of an extremely sweet Target employee, Mary just had to figure out how to arrange everything.

        The wheels of the shopping cart squeaked persistently until Mary finally came to a stop at the back of the line. Christmas was a few weeks away, so the lines were rather long. At least nobody seemed too stressed now. Mary always made sure to avoid stores during Black Friday because of all the chaos. All that pushing and shoving over a couple of deals just didn’t seem worth it to her. Besides, she couldn’t exactly partake in the mad rush to take advantage of discounts when her bones creaked like rusty door hinges every time she moved thanks to her arthritis. It was much safer for seniors to get their shopping done in the window between that wild free for all and the final crowd that left its shopping until the very last minute.

        With half a dozen people in front of her, Mary passed the time by browsing the rack full of last minute temptations next to the line. It was still enjoyable to take a peek at the assorted packs of gum and the candy bars even though the teeth that Mary had left were too weak for her to mess around with all of that sugar. Spotting a Hershey’s chocolate bar, Mary’s resistance crumbled. She hadn’t had one of these in years. Mary added one to her cart. Her dentist would tease her about this if she needed to get any more work done, she was sure. Still, it was December. She might as well give herself a little treat in the spirit of the season.

        Mary was second in line by the time her knees began to ache something terrible. Dozens of items from baby clothes to sewing kits had been purchased while Mary had waited for her turn to come. She was anxious to take all of this home so she could take a nap before starting the scrapbooks and wrapping the other gifts in her favorite snowflake patterned wrapping paper. The teenage checkout clerk had been taking her sweet time, swiping each item so slowly that even a half asleep sloth would have been quicker. Now she was finally showing a bit of energy, but Mary was less than pleased about how she was acting.

        The formerly lethargic high schooler was glaring at the young girl at the front of the line. The girl, older than ten but younger than fourteen, had only brought one item to the checkout: a small stuffed elephant. Her lips trembled slightly as she begged for the cashier to let her have it; she had only five dollars ,but the plush cost ten. She pleas fell on deaf ears. “This is a store, not a donation bin. If you can’t afford the toy, you can’t take it. Now go put that thing back where you got it and leave.” The handful of people behind Mary muttered their agreement. The girl was holding up the line.

        “Please let me have it. My little brother is in the hospital. The doctor says he probably won’t be able to spend Christmas with us, so I have to make sure he has something to make him happy on Christmas.” Judging from the girl’s slightly matted hair and worn out looking hand me down outfit, her family probably couldn’t afford even this tiny gift. Mary didn’t know what had happened to the girl’s bother to make him so sick, but it sounded serious. Maybe this would be his last Christmas. She couldn’t let this thoughtful sweetheart go to the hospital empty handed.

        Mary pulled out her wallet. “I’d be happy to buy that for you, dear.” The cashier curled her lip in disgust as the unusually thin girl hugged Mary hard enough to make the brittle bones in her back protest a bit. Mary put the chocolate bar she had taken next to the elephant. “I’ll buy this for you too. A sweet, caring girl like you deserves something special to make the season a bit merrier.”