My name is Patience. The others tell me it’s my ‘superpower’. Well, I need to use my superpower today! What a means to an end. I mean boring!
So, here I am, reporting to my assignment. I enter the superstore and slowly lower my newly acquired girth into one of the motorized buggies. I maneuver the contraption through the produce department and make eye contact and smile at shoppers who acknowledge me.
I head for aisle eight. Ah, there it is. Down at the end there’s coffee and tea on one side and jams, spreads, honey and peanut butters on the other. Man! Do you guys really need all this variety? You are richly blessed.
I park myself in front of the peanut butter and sit and wait.
Maybe I should describe myself a bit more. I’m rather large. I wear no make-up, and my graying hair is cut short in no real style. I’m wearing red sweatpants and a baggy tee-shirt that says, “Amen to your prayers”.
I watch the various shoppers as they come through. Is this the one I’m waiting for?
“Hello,” I greet. “Hi,” says the woman shopping with her husband. She smiles. “John, can you grab that bag of Midnight Silk that we like?”
Another woman brushes by. “Oh, excuse me,” she says. “I’m just getting some honey.”
Then there’s a man. Is he the one?
“I like your tee-shirt,” I tell him.
He puffs out his torso and pats it with both hands. “Outer Banks. Greatest place on Earth”. He smiles. “You been there?”
“I’ve seen it from a distance. I think it’s pretty nice.”
I learn that his name is Bob, and he likes to talk. We effectively clog the aisle for a little while.
Then, I see her. She’s tall, slim, dressed in stylish jeans and a nicely coordinated shirt. She has long chestnut-colored hair. Her make-up is perfect. She comes around the corner pushing her shopping cart with purpose. She looks past me at Bob. She has to pull up short to avoid hitting him, but she does it well.
Bob takes the hint and says, “I better get moving.”
I wave at him. Then, she looks at me. Her nostrils flare and she impatiently tosses that mane of hers. Her right foot starts tapping. She looks me up and down and I can see… contempt? Mean judgement? She rolls her eyes as she reads my tee shirt. I notice a glimmer on her long neck. There’s a delicate, golden cross hanging there.
Looking up at her, I smile, and I know. Yep, she’s the one. Would she ever have even glanced at me if I wasn’t in her way?
“I believe you are right next to what I need. Could you kindly move so that I might get it?” She asks.
She has no idea the significance of her words.
I answer cheerfully, “Yes, by all means.”
As I backup my buggy, I tell her, “I’m looking for a no salt peanut butter.”
She scrutinizes me. With a softened attitude she says. “This store carries two brands.” She shows them to me.
I make no move to take either. “And they carry a variety with no added oils,” she continues.
“What’s so great about that?” I ask.
She opens her mouth to speak and then looks me up and down again. With a slight shake of her head and as though somebody like me would never understand, she says, “I don’t know.”
She puts one of the peanut butters in her cart, puts the other back on the shelf, and gives me a dip of her chin. Then she moves on.
Will she give me a second thought? Will she think it’s odd that I have nothing in my basket, but I’m looking for the exact product that she’s looking for? Or that I did not ask her to hand me one of the peanut butters? Might she remember that she’s a Christian and that it’s important to love her neighbor even when her neighbor looks like me and is in her way at the grocery store? Indeed, I am next to what she needs, the amen to her prayers.
As she reaches the end of the aisle, I call out, “Have a blessed day, Alison.”
I see her head come up. She turns toward me. Her expression is humbled. “Thank you,” she says. “How did you know my…?”
But I am gone, of course.