First off: Keith called. That should have been a foreshadowing of things to come. But he just wanted me to grab his mail because he wasn't going to be home, and to get him some magnesium. Easy enough.
When I was heading for the drugstore I had Brie with me. I thought I would just go to Walgreens for the magnesium, but she said, "Let's go to Rite Aid in Glens Falls because you can get 20% off and it's cheaper." Seemed like a good plan to me! Ah...the best laid plans...
We got to Rite Aid and entered the parking lot. I was about to turn into a space when we noticed a...young gentleman of color coming out of the front door. The most noticeable things about him were his deep turquoise jacket, his long basketball shorts, his hair which was light reddish brown on top and blackish brown on the bottom, and pulled up into what can only be described as a Pebbles Flintstone-type 'do. He was also tweaking. He decided to sit on the curb in front of the door to enjoy the wind.
Now a person of fainter heart would have driven right out of that parking lot and gone home. But being the loyal sister that I am, I knew I had to get those vitamins. Brie said, "Do you want to borrow my mace?" "Only if you want me to mace myself in this wind." "Okay, do you want to borrow my knife?" "Um...I'll take a pass on that too. I'll be okay as long as I go in the side door and hurry up." I knew I needed to move quickly because he had spotted us in the car, smiled and started mouthing something that we just didn't want to know about. Glens Falls isn't known for it's high level of diversity, so we figured he was just surprised to see a couple of "his people". But we preferred to keep it moving.
"Lock the doors as soon as I get out," I told Brie. "No kidding," she replied. I opened my door (thankfully it wasn't on the same side as where he was) and hustled in the side door. Feeling like I had dodged a bullet, I headed for the vitamin section, but then took notice of the interior of the store. There were several men of color in there, which was odd since there are barely any brown people in Glens Falls and I know most of the locals. So instead of trying to figure out where they came from, I hightailed it to the vitamins so I could get out of there before "Pebbles" came in to join the group.
I don't go to Rite Aid that often anymore and I really wanted to look around, but I didn't want to make any new friends. Like the one gentleman who approached me and wanted to have a conversation. So instead, I scurried over to the cooler to grab 3 cherry cokes, only to have a man come up and try to talk to me through the glass door. Yep: time to go!
When I made it safely to the car Brie was laughing. "You missed it!" "What did I miss?" She explained, "When you went in, one of the managers came out. She looked at Tweaker. and he said, "I see you looking at me girl," and she went to the end of the wall to have a cigarette. Apparently he now figured he had a captive audience, so he launched into a Broadway style rendition of the Pokemon song!" I had to laugh at that. "Are you serious?" "Yes I am. Complete with jazz hands and dance moves. Singing at the top of his lungs, 'Pokemon! Gotta catch 'em all! It's you and me, I know it's my destiny!' But I don't think the girl liked it because I'm pretty sure she called 9-1-1. He must have sensed it too because there he goes across the parking lot."
Yes Mr. Tweaker was slowly making his way towards the road. That was a lot of activity for our local Rite Aid. I told her about the men in the store, and that got us wondering if there was a halfway house or something in the area. Anyhoo, as we made our way out of the parking lot, we noticed the guy now sitting on the curb by the street, taking off his jacket and who knows what else. Hopefully he is safe somewhere, or getting help, or whatever he might need. In the meantime: I don't think Lin-Manuel Miranda has anything to worry about! And the next time Brie suggests Rite Aid: I'm going to make her go by herself! And thankfully Kitty wasn't with us because I'm sure she would have sung along 😃
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