Ice Cream Party

If it wasn’t for this long line at the grocery store, Lillian, a Frog, would have already been home. In fact, not only would she already be home she would probably be halfway finished fixing tonight’s dinner. As it currently stands there are still 2 people with full carts standing ahead of her in line and no shorter lines in sight.

“How could it be?” Lillian screamed internally. “How could all of these people be at the grocery store at the same time!”

Lillian was starting to take the grocery store crowds personally. As if it was orchestrated. Lillian has been having a particularly busy and stressful week at work and on her way home she decided that she wanted to pick up an ice cream as a little comfort treat for herself. After all, she deserved it, ya know?

But she didn’t deserve this. Stuck behind two full carts in a line that seems to take forever, with her ice cream melting in her hand? She wanted to scream!

But she couldn’t. Everyone was in the same boat of course, it wasn’t like everyone got together today and decided to inconvenience Lillian, even though sometimes it totally felt that way. This is just the way things are sometimes. Life is harder than it needs to be and there is no rhyme or reason for it.

Lillian even briefly considered the self-checkout line even though she always used the actual clerks as her own personal protest against automation, but even those kiosks were full and had long lines of their own.

Then Lillian had an idea. She looked at her ice cream and opened it. Usually, this would be cause for alarm but clearly, she was in the middle of some unprecedented times. She looked around and noticed a package of plastic spoons that were abandoned in the checkout line. That was pure luck. Luck that she hadn’t felt all week. So she opens the spoons dug one out and started eating the ice cream she had been dreaming of this whole time.

The line didn’t move any faster, but that didn’t bother Lillian too much anymore. She had gotten what she came for, and was enjoying the brief respite from the chaos and difficulty around her.