Flash non-fiction, originally conceived on a motorcycle ride from Seattle to New York City.
Dear journal,
Today marked nine days without clean clothes, so I decided to stop in the city of Aberdeen for laundry. I needed quarters first, and there was a big grocery store where I could use my debit card.
Passing through those sliding glass doors made me feel like a part of the world again. I took the brightest yellow banana from the produce aisle, then stepped into line with all the other folks. Setting my banana next to someone else’s yogurt, and the considerate act of placing a plastic divider between the two, was familial and lovely.
Up ahead in line, the attendant cast his eyes down at the scanner while he rang up items for a customer.
“Find everything you need?” he asked.
She said yes and thanked him.
“Have a nice day,” he said.
When I got to the register, I noticed the word “Freedom” tattooed in cursive across his inner forearm. Then, in a burst of self-consciousness, I realized he was going to wonder why I was buying only a banana. No one goes to the grocery store for only a banana. A single apple maybe, or a bunch of bananas--but someone buying one banana on its own, only spending 29 cents at the grocery store? It would give a cashier pause. He would probably ask about it, I thought. And to tell you the truth, it sort of excited me. This all went through my mind very quickly.
I wanted him to say something that invited an explanation: "Just a banana today?" or "You must be doing laundry." Something along those lines. I wouldn't need to explain my whole motorcycle trip—that would be narcissistic—but I did feel a little like a lonely old man, that one who is always sitting near the back of a bus taking any opportunity to strike up conversation, grasping for a single moment to be seen and heard even if it meant a stranger's polite annoyance.
That bright little banana approached us on the conveyor.
“Find everything you need?” the cashier asked.
“Yes—,” I responded.
“Have a nice day," he interrupted.
And the change machine gave me my quarters.