Her items had all been checked through, the sums totaled, and the careful order in which she’d placed the items on the belt little more than a memory.
The pony-tailed casher with the overabundant bangs snapped her gum behind her plastic face shield. “Got any coupons?”
Sharice dug through her purse, pawing through three old cloth masks (now considered déclassé with the latest COVID protocol revisions), several used Kleenex, a tube of Passion’s Memory Urgent Returns Red Lipstick that she hadn’t gotten to use in two and a half years, a melted pack of Cinnamon Trident, two pairs of reading glasses that she was sure she’d lost, and her checkbook; the envelope stuffed with coupons for redemption were nowhere in the vast cavern of her purse.
“I must’ve left them on the kitchen counter,” Sharice mumbled, plunging her hands deep into the pockets of her rain jacket. “Oh, hold up…they’re right here!”
The growing line of customers behind grocery shopper Sharice began to shift and grumble as she pulled the coupons from the envelope, and one-by-one, laid them on the scanner under the cashier’s gimlet eye.
“I’m so sorry, but I forget to bring my credit card and I’ll have to write a check,” she laughed nervously, right before the crowd surged.
© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2022)
The challenge? Write a story in 6 sentences, no more & no less, and if you’d like, share your creation or just visit and comment on others’ ideas, with GirlieOnTheEdge, Denise. The prompt is “REDEMPTION”, and here’s where you join the party: Six Sentence Stories
Valley of the Trolls 
You have just described something that really infuriates me! Mind you, I was guilty of doing something similar myself the other day, but we won’t go there!
My 6!
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Not if you’re in l I’ll ne, in front of me! 😂😂
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Oh dear, I think i was standing behind Sharice in a queue today. Your story took me right back… We’d been in the queue for a bit and the elderly lady in front of me eventually got to the front, put her sandwich on the counter, hefted her bag up to the counter, began to unzip it… And I settled down to wait, although I have to say my thoughts weren’t of the most patient. Then a woman in the next queue saw what was happening and that I had only one item, so she showed me into her queue in front of her. There are kind souls out there. Realy vivid telling of your story, Liz.
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We’re lucky to have kind souls in the midst of the impatient!
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Although Sharice can’t wear the lipstick, at this point I suspect the parts of her face that aren’t covered by a mask are blushing from embarrassment! Maybe next time she will double check to make sure she has all the things she needs to take.
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Naw. But maybe things’ll have gotten a lot better & people will have learned to chill?
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Ah yes, you ladies and your hand-bags, what can I say.
I admit to being slightly put out when a lady carefully packs all her purchases away, looks astonished that she has to pay, and then discovers, of course, that her purse (wallet to you guys, I think) is way down at the bottom somewhere and the excavation recommences…
Because men are perfect, no?
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(Picturing an old duffer giving himself a pat down: trenchcoat, tweed jacket — all pockets –, pant pockets — back to front –, and finally finding his wallet tucked in the inner fold of his flat cap)
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Laughing.
Touché!
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(Doffs her own cap & bows deeply)
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Sounds like the beginning of a modern uprising story.
I have been behind these people, but never been one. I get anxiety about inconveniencing others and don’t even get in line until I have everything I need in hand!
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We live in intolerant times, but at least ir!’s not as bad as imagined here. 😉
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I like the name and description of the lipstick she hasn’t used in over two years.
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(a little longing in my prose, right there…Lol!)
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Shuffle, sigh loudly, mumble under breath… nobody with a set to say anything. We’ve all done it at some point but take your time Sharice, none of us really have anywhere else important enough to go that we should be so indignant in the checkout line. Nice six Liz
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Thanks, Greg!
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er… for my ‘real’ comment…
All to common an occurrence, (the intolerance of strangers), and a very identifiable situation.
While not immune to impatience and frustration with the ill-preparedness of others, my righteous outrage is all too often short-circuited by the Ed Sullivan Effect.*
Enjoyable Six
* old cultural reference, as a young child watching the aforementioned variety show on Sunday nights, I would find myself painfully embarrassed when a juggler or plate-twirler would drop something… kinda projectile empathy
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Nothing wrong with a little empathy. And on with the really big she-ow!
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Oh dear, I fear I have too much in common with Sharice, even down to the unworn lippy! Great Six, Liz.
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Thanks, Chris! Maybe when the pandemic passes for real, we can bust out the lip paint!
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Uh-oh! I used to have a purse like that…chock full of anything I could possibly need for 48 hours 🙂 Good story!
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…but it never had what you needed at the moment. 😂😂 Me too!
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It was a chore to carry it around, haha–and my sister teased me constantly! 🙂
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One of the many faces of family love… ❤
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Sharice definitely didn’t win any popularity contest that day. Excellent post so well-written.
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Thank you!
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Oh, how I’ve been in that “growing line of customers’, lol
Fabulous description, Liz, right down to laying out the coupons, one by one 🙂
And thanks for new term “gimlet eye”!
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My pleasure. Thank YOU!
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People get so ridiculously impatient.
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(Raises hand, shamefaced)
Would that I were better, on a daily basis.
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I love coming her. Mar VEE lous!
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Yay!!
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I like the descriptions of the contents of her purse. 🙂
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Thanks, Romi!
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Absolutely loved this, Liz, especially the contents of her handbag and ‘The pony-tailed casher with the overabundant bangs’. (‘Bangs’ is a word that always makes me laugh; here in Aus it’s a euphemism for horizontal folk-dancing. 🙂 You’ll see in my piece that we had a bit of ESP going this week.
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Oh, we use that word the same way here, too. Who knows? Maybe she’d gotten lucky. A lot. 😂
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🙂
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(do not type list of other euphemism….do not type…. this is not your Six, clark!)
lol
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I am pretty sure there are a number of states where her actions are grounds for justifiable homicide. (actually that probably isn’t as funny as I’d wish)
Loved the descriptions here, as long as I’m not there.
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Best read remotely, yes.
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yeah, thanks a lot for the bucket of reality, D!
“Now everyone, all you Readers, Clap your hands and Sharice will return!”
lol
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With her coupons, all sorted this time. And double clap for her credit card, if you truly believe in Peter Pan!
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