Wednesday 25 November 2009

Desert Aisle

I tend to go to the supermarket in the afternoon. There are fewer people about bacause they're all working. I'm not. I like to look out for discounted items close to their sell-by-date. There's just nothing like a bargain, and besides, a dole check only goes so far. I'll be honest with you, occasionally I drop things into to pocket if there's nobody around. Every little helps.

A couple of weeks ago I was struck by a strange sight when I turned into the frozen food aisle. A girl was facing the large open freezers, quite close, with her eyes closed. She wasn't holding her hands out towards the freezer as you might expect, but kept her arms straight by her sides. Her trolley waited a few feet away in the middle of the aisle.

I paused for a few seconds, expecting her eyes to pop open, but she just carried on standing there. She looked about 40 and wore a business suit, although her long wavy hair wasn't quite neat enough to fit the look.

As I started to walk towards her she must have sensed me because she opened her eyes. She seemed a little startled, but actually, now I think of it, not really. She just turned back to her trolley and continued down the aisle.

-

This afternoon I was back at the same supermarket. It was pretty quiet. I was in the large freezer aisle again and though about the lady.

I walked over to the her spot and looked down into the freezer. It was full of lightly misted, multi-coloured packet-meals. I picked up a frozen lasagne and dropped it into my trolley. Then I looked around and seeing as there was nobody I decided to close my eyes for a few seconds. It felt strange at first and after a second or two I reopened them. I called myself a pussy and tried again.

Eyes closed. There was still a glow from the powerful overhead lights, giving me that strange kind of vision that is black and white at the same time. I became more aware of the piped-in music, also coming from high up in the ceiling. Typically banal classical music. Surely she wasn't listing to that. I tried to ignore it.

The feel of the cool air was there but not strong. It gave a false freshness to the aisle.

I kept my eyes closed for what seemed like ages. The background music started slowly fading behind the hum of the open freezer. It seemed to get louder and louder. It was deep and rich, with a slight bass vibration. Very nice.

It started to feel like several minutes, but I just stood there listening. The sound was changing. It began to resonate like a digeridoo. I no longer felt strange to be standing there. Then I heard someone coming so I opend my eyes and carried on up the aisle.

That was about it really, but it made me think. Maybe there were some interesting experiences to be had in this boring suburb. I mean, it really is boring, but you never know.

No comments:

Post a Comment