Arrows at attention, wife in distress
I was completely turned around even though I had listened to The
Husband’s directions. He’d asked me if I had any questions. I shook
my head no and smiled. I was ready to accept my first mission.
Arrows at attention, wife in distress
I was completely turned around even though I had listened to The Husband’s directions. He’d asked me if I had any questions. I shook my head no and smiled. I was ready to accept my first mission.
How hard could shopping for groceries be? No, I was not trying to find the supermarket, or commissary, as what’s on a military post. I was already in it. I was in the cereal aisle and facing the wrong way. The faded yellow arrow on the floor told me so.
How did that happen? I was following the arrows like a good “dependent” and then all of a sudden, another wife with two unruly kids in tow, glared at me and hissed, “You’re going the wrong way,” as she less than gracefully slid her carriage passed mine, the scraping of metal almost as grating as her voice.
I made a feeble apology and tried to turn around, only to bump into another woman who gave me a look that said, “Oh brother, another one.”
I mumbled something about this being my first time. I backed up and tried not to take out a display of generic Rice Krispers.
“You’re supposed to follow the arrows,” she said as she squeezed by me.
“I know. I’m sorry, but I think I got turned around when I went back to get …” she was gone and I was talking to a row of hot cereal mix.
This shouldn’t be this hard, I thought to myself. What happens if you forget something from two aisles over? I had to map out how I was going to do it without running down the one-way aisle in the wrong direction.
If I went the wrong way, the other wives might follow and then there would be total anarchy. I could see why the military wouldn’t want a bunch of women going down the aisles (gasp) any way they pleased. Walking any which way, grabbing things off shelves and turning around like someone with no order or structure in their lives. Those kinds of people and their ways simply had to be stopped.
Shopping excursion nearly over, I remember that The Husband said that checking out was not like a regular store, either. I had to wait behind red velvet ropes, like the kind at the bank that little kids swing on, and then cry when the whole thing tips over.
There was a lighted panel that I had to look at, and when I was “next,” the lighted sign (with more of those damned arrows) would tell me which checker would be handling my order. The line progressed slowly, and each woman that was lucky enough to be “next” shot the rest of us a smug look.
This whole thing was beginning to give me intestinal distress. “They” all knew what they were doing, it was hot and it was taking far longer than I thought it should.
The cashier looked bored as she rang everything up and shoved it down the dirty black belt for the bagger. He looked equally bored.
I was relieved when everything was back in the carriage in paper bags. I started to walk out, but the bagger grabbed the side of the carriage.
“Ma’am,” he began. Along with forfeiting my free will in the grocery store, I also apparently gave up my identity. I didn’t have a name anymore. I was “Ma’am.”
“I’ll be taking your things out to the car for you.”
“Oh, that’s OK. I can do it myself,” I smiled at him. The poor kid looked how I felt.
“No, I … have to,” he said.
Oh, that’s right. He takes my things out to the car, loads them up and waits for a tip. That’s how he gets paid.
I shoved a couple of dollars into his hand, hoping he wouldn’t look to see how much I’d given him before I was safely in my car. I had no idea how much to give him.
Heaving a sigh of relief, I still had to find my way out of the parking lot. More arrows. As a new military wife, I had learned valuable information. The Army loves arrows.
Nearly to the exit, I see a large van headed my way. No way. This couldn’t be happening. I know I followed the arrows, this time. I avoided eye contact with the driver.
“One of us is going the wrong way,” she said out her window as she carefully navigated passed me. And gave me an apologetic smile.
