Talk of the Grocery Store

Julian spent a lot of time this week helping old lady, Bessie, find her groceries this week. Although he’s a courtesy clerk, he was last seen reaching high to pull a bottle of grape juice from the top shelf of the cooler. When finished, he walked her up to a cashier’s line. He helped her out to the car, and she had even asked to take him home, so he could unload her car. Another customer said that Bessie had slipped a bill into his hand.

Bessie, it was said, had come to the store every day it was open for the past year. Each time she bought five Three Musketeers candy bars and handed them to the cashiers and courtesy clerks. They laughed when she called them, My Kids.

She’d always come shopping alone and said that her sons lived out of town. She often talked about them. But she said they never visited her, and they never came to the store with her.

Julian said that he hadn’t gone back home in five years. Someone said that he and his mother had a falling out. He never said if he had any brothers or sisters.

Julian’s been working at the store six months, but he’s kept to himself. He always sat on a bench outside during breaks. Rose, a cashier, knew him best. She said that he came here for college, and he didn’t get a job in his career after graduation. Some said that he wanted to be a social worker. Rose said he did some volunteer work on Thursday nights, but he never told her what.

Monday, he bagged groceries for customers she checked out. Later, Julian and Rose were seen together in Cosmetics after he got off work.

Tuesday cashiers laughed when he came in on a day off to buy some groceries.

Wednesday, cashiers snickered the next night they both called in sick.

Ellen, the front manager gave extra hours for the week. Someone else said that he was also tending bar part-time somewhere out of town.

Thursday, when he ran into Rose, he told her that he liked long drives and looking at stars in open skies. But where he’d go after work, no one knew.

No one has figured out how he could afford to buy his Camaro, just two years old, with a courtesy’ clerk’s salary. He flinched when Jerry from produce said that he must have a sugar momma.

He let out a weak laugh when someone said he must be a gigolo.

To someone else, he said, “Get a life.”

And the less he said, the more others talked.

Julian always tried to laugh and act carefree. When others talked about him, Rose said that there was sadness in his eyes. One day she saw him sitting on the bench during the break, and crying

while on his cell. She said that he was having a rough day, and she followed him outside.

“We all can use a good friend,” he said. "

When Jenny, the light janitor, said that Julian and Rose would make a good couple, Rose shrugged her shoulders. Someone said Rose was getting a divorce and had two young children.

Rose excused herself, saying the truck had come in, and she had a lot of items to put away.

Friday Rose helped Bessie get her groceries to the car. Bessie stopped and glanced at Rose for a moment. Bessie said, “I saw how he was looking at you.”

During quiet moments, cashiers discussed customers among themselves. They called one who bought bottles of whiskey and vodka, The Bar Tender, the young woman who corrected their grammar, The Teacher, and they called Bessie, The Mother. Jenny speculated that Julian’s high school class had voted him The Most Likely to Succeed, and she laughed. She said, “That’s the way it goes,” while Rose stood nearby and listened.

Jenny gasped when Ellen walked up to the cashiers. Ellen told the cashiers to clean up their areas. She turned to Jenny and said, “The breakroom’s a mess.”

Someone said the district manager was coming the next day.

Bessie came again and asked for Julian, but Julian was helping someone else. Rose kept looking at him while she sprayed and wiped clean a conveyor belt.

Bessie pointed at Julian and said, “He’s a good, young man.”

Just the other, he handed a poem he said that he had written to Rose. She cradled it in her hand and took it to her locker. “I never knew you wrote,” she said.

Jared of loss prevention ran out a front door, and yelled, and a lady dropped an armful of canned vegetables onto the sidewalk.

Friday night Rose stared as Julian walked in with a woman who staggered through the front doors. Julie added that she had seen them dancing in the soup aisle. But they left in separate cars.

Julian admitted that he knew the woman from Intro to Psychology in college.

Saturday Julian and Rose were seen sitting across from the table in the break room. He gave her a ham sandwich, and they brushed hands. When someone stood outside the door, they heard Julian and Rose laugh.

Lately, Julain and Rose were seen standing in the aisle almost every day. A manager glanced at them.

One day Julian was seen carrying a bouquet of roses, but he was returning them to floral.

People in the breakroom were talking.

Cashiers were restless. Someone said that HR said everyone was getting a raise. But when asked, HR denied it.

One day an ambulance was seen parked in front. Its lights were flashing. A small crowd was gathered around a woman. Someone said that it was Bessie. Julian shook his head. “It can’t be,” he said.

“She’s such a nice lady,” said Rose.

Ellen walked out and said, “Go back to work. We’ll take care of it.”

Bessie sighed, and said, “You kids are so nice.”

She was gone for three days, and Julian was asking about her.

When Bessie returned, she walked to the line where Rose was running the register, and Julian was bagging groceries. A man stood next to her, her neighbor, she said. He held her elbow.

Rose gave a look of concern, and Julian said, “You had us worried.”

“I’m okay.” Bessie sighed. “But I don’t think I’ll go out dancing tonight.”

“You go dancing?”

“Heavens, no,” she said. She looked at Julian and Rose. “But I used to when I was young like you.”

Julian and Rose smiled.

“You kids, are good friends.”

Rose finished checking out Bessie, and Julian put the bags into the cart. Rose put the lane closed sign on the conveyor belt, but they lingered for a moment, before he took Bessie’s groceries to her car.