A Flash Fiction Short Story Inspired by "The Orange" by Wendy Cope
The woman behind the register looks over her cat eyeglasses, she smacks her gum, glancing from the conveyor belt back to me. “This all for you?” she asks. I grab a pack of gum remembering I just ran out and set it down on the conveyor belt. “Yup, just this.” I give her a tight-lipped smile, this is what I’ve been waiting to do all this time, isn't it? To be able to buy what I want when I want it. Her bracelets jingle as she grabs the gum and the orange. I can't wait to get out of this store, it wasn't bad until the woman grimaced at me, doing so the whole time as I waited for her to ring up my total and then count out the change agonizingly slow. Still, later on, that’s not what I would tell you if you asked how the trip to the supermarket was in the middle of the day. I'd tell of the way the fruit section smelled so sweet and wonderful, and a toddler, waiting with his mother behind me, picked up a quarter I had dropped and raised it up to me, smili
