It's a big
drugstore, the kind with long aisles and a loud
microphone that announces when medicine is ready in the pharmacy, although we don't know exactly what kind of
pain killer Mrs.Harrison is getting, we know it's
ready.
She is wearing jeans, a red smock over a white t-shirt and a determined look.
Hard at work stacking kleenex boxes for uses both
hygenic and insecure. She is not so much grimacing as
focusing. I walked by once without really noticing, wandering around looking for
AAA batteries that were not "up front, by checkout"-as the perky counterboy had suggested. The second time I noticed-she was talking to herself...it was very quiet, but here was some of it:
it's OK, you have 'em..it's OK,, you have 'em now,..you've got all of them,,and it's OK, you have it done and can stop,,, they are stacked just fine, just fine now...
If you weren't standing next to her, you couldn't have heard her above the muzak. But next to her, a few feet away, I heard all of the words; the little encouragement to herself. I felt embarrassed to listen in, and was going to walk away, but she got up, wiped her hands on her pants and gave me a quick nod/smile combo, and moved on. Done.
Usually someone so eager to please, is wanting to please someone else. I think it was supposed to be internal; words strictly for her own use. She was satisfied, at least for a while.
I wondered if she kept a journal of each day's success?