Not again

"Kaaaaaay!"

"Oh, crap," Kay muttered under her breathe. She was so startled by the familiar voice, that she almost dropped the box of eggs.

She decided to try to pretend that she did not hear the nasally whine. With her head down, she turned, placed the egg carton in her cart, and began to push the cart away, but she was suddenly blocked by a short stalky woman.

Internally Kay cringed, took a deep breath, then put on her best acting face. "Oh...oh, hello Mrs. Albright. How are you?" As soon as the words left her mouth, she wanted to kick herself. She knew what would come next.

"Oh, I'm doing wonderfully. Much better than you, I'm sure, you poor girl." Women over sixty should never pretend to pout. It overemphasizes their pruney lips. "I mean, since the death," this word she stage whispered just loud enough so that people at the end of the aisle stopped to see what was happening, "of your family. I know that couldn't have been easy. What a horrible thing to happen to a thirteen year old, tsk, tsk." Mrs. Albright shook her head disapprovingly.

Mrs. Albright had tried starting a rumor that the carjacking probably had something to do with the fact that I was adopted. Kay overheard Mrs. Albright informing the police that she'd "Never really trusted the girl. Adopted and all. Found on the side of a highway," and "Maybe her people killed her adoptive family to get the girl back." She was a horrible woman, but my parents said we should be kind to her because nobody liked her. My brother Jason pointed out that nobody liked her because she was rude, grumpy, and had vicious dogs. To teach him a lesson, they made him go pull weeds in her yard.

"Yes, Mrs. Albright, I better run, my frozens will melt before I get home." Kay actually wanted to run her over with the cart, but my Mom had taught me better. Instead, she stepped backwards, pulling the cart out of her hands.

"I hope you have a great day," Kay politely said as she rushed in the opposite direction from where she needed to go. She went straight to the checkout lines, hoping to ditch the gossipy witch. Of course Mrs. Albright followed.

"Well, I was just saying to Frank, you remember my husband Frank, I was just saying to Frank, 'I wonder what happened to that adopted girl across from across the street?' Frank said he didn't know, but I said..."

She rambled on and on as she stood in line behind me. Most of the time Kay kept her back to the witch, but occasionally Kay would turn around briefly, put on a fake smile and nod, then go back to reading about George Clooney's love child. She did want to ask Mrs. Albright what she was doing in Kay's neighborhood, but decided against it. As Kay finally reached the cashier, Mrs. Albright was just got to the good part.

"I was telling the Johnson's, you remember them right? They had that beautiful, smart girl your age. She's a library aide now... doing very well... What are you doing by the way?"

Which was actually code for either are you on probation or are you living on the street. "I'm an Architectural Engineer." Mrs. Albright raised an eyebrow in question. "I design buildings."

"Oh you're in construction. Do you to run the machines or do you need special training for that?"

The cashier gave Kay a pitiful look, then rolled her eyes in the direction of the hag. Kay furrowed my brow to indicate, "Yes, feel free to open the trapdoor and get rid of her."

Instead, "Erin," as her nametag indicated, handed me my receipt and said, "Thank you very much, have a wonderful day," then nodded to indicate, 'Run. I'll hold her off.'

Without even saying good-bye I took off quickly. As she left, Kay heard Mrs. Albright call out to me at the same time as Erin say, "Oh, I'm afraid I'll have to do a price check on that. Just moment please."

Kay would have to thank Erin another time.

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