Ch 1, Par 9 & 10

Lava walked through the grocery store, carrying her keys and her wallet as she always did. She walked down the isles slowly peering at each item carefully, considering and reconsidering what she would have for dinner. Nothing sounded good. It was never fun to cook for one. Country music spilled out over the intercom, and lava softly sang along…. “the bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight…..” Lava picked up a jar of spaghetti sauce and began reading the nutritional information on the back. She always did this when she was really just killing time. “Hi Lava” a voice rang out, it was the secretary from her Dentist’s office, Melanie. Melanie was a very nice, very kind, middle aged woman, who Lava had known for many years. “How’s Lance?” Melanie asked, which was always the first question from her lips whenever she saw Lava. Melanie loved Lance, Lava’s younger brother, and always said she considered him her own son. She loved Lava too, but Lance had spent a lot of time with her and her family over the years. “He’s good”, Lava replied with a smile, “How are you?”. Melanie smiled opened her arms, pulled Lava into an overwhelming embrace, and exclaimed with utter joy in her tone, “I’m wonderful, have you heard, I’m a grandmother!” Lava had heard, she saw the pictures in the paper, Melanie’s daughter had triplets the week before. “I heard, congratulations. I saw their picture in the paper.” Lava explained. Melanie asked about the rest of Lava’s family, to which, Lava delivered her usual speech, telling where each family member was, and how they were doing. This was not an unusual occurrence for Lava. Living in a small town meant knowing everyone, and everyone knowing you. After a somewhat lengthy conversation, Lava said “It was so nice to see you, I better get going” Not that Lava had anywhere in particular to go, she just wanted to finish her shopping.

“Well Hello there young lady” she heard a deep raspy voice from behind. She turned and saw Joe Taylor, the butcher. He worked in the back of the store, and normally waved and winked at Lava through the glass window as she passed by the meat department. It wasn’t often that Lava saw him out from behind the window, but when she did, she cringed. He grabbed her, and gave her a great big bear hug. Lava laughed nervously, and asked “How are you, Joe”. Joe replied, “I’m much better now, seeing you”. Lava smiled, and said “It’s nice to see you too Joe, sorry I can’t chat, I’m kind of in a hurry”. Lava bid him goodbye, and walked briskly down the isle, as if she had somewhere to go. On the way toward the front, she grabbed a frozen pizza, and a 20 oz Diet Dr. Pepper, forgetting all about trying to eat nutriciously. It was time to go. While in line she saw several people from around the city. She smiled, waived, said hello, asked how are you….all the while trying to look as though she was in a hurry and couldn’t talk. Lava loved people, but she hated the awkward grocery store meetings. Especially once she saw and spoke to the person, she hated running into them over and over throughout the store. It made her uncomfortable, and she never knew what to say.