Things Unspoken

Last night I went on an epic drugstore-grocery run, which was…well…epic. Very successful, very fun, very LONG. But despite my crazy good deals, I left the grocery feeling rather melancholy.

I saw someone there, an acquaintance, someone I’ll probably never meet again except by chance. Recent happenings in the lives of the people we mutually know have been…just sad.

There were a lot of things we could have said to each other.

But we just said, “Hi, how are you?” And pushed our metal carts past each other, one of us toward produce, the other toward dairy.

If we’d known each other better, maybe we would have pulled our carts to the side of the aisle and been sad together. But we don’t know each other that well. Neither could be sure of what the other would say, or feel, or agree, or disagree with.

So we left all that hanging in the air, rising to the rafters of a 24-hour grocery, and we went our separate ways.

I imagine if we ever do meet again, they’ll be nothing left to say, or keep quiet about.