Saturday evening queues
Jiya quickly looked for the smallest queue and joined it.
The tall hefty man in front of her had just one book and she was relieved to
see that it would not take much time to bill. She tried to strain neck to see
what the young girl ahead of the man had bought. She began counting. There were
a total of seventeen items. Jiya frowned. The girl would not be seventeen
herself. There were at least five bottles each of moisturizers, shampoos and
acne creams. This girl needed a lesson in good shopping. Jiya thought of the
days when she was herself in her teens.
She suddenly missed the careless spunky rebellious Jiya. Not
that she was any different now. But her morning job as an aerobics instructor
at a mass communications college and an evening one at a fitness center did not
leave her with much time to exercise her eccentricities off late. She was too
proud to ask her parents for money. And they were too disillusioned by her
choice of career to care more. They shared a warm relationship which she was
glad about and satisfied with.
Now the girl ahead starting humming music. This was just
too much. Firsts she buys the entire shops and then she teases people by singing
songs. The man ahead seemed nonchalant. He didn’t seem to be bothered by all
the time that was going down the shampoo bottles. Jiya looked at her watch. If she
had to reach the movie theater in time, she should be sprinting there right
now. But she had decided to squeeze in the weekly grocery shopping before the
evening plan. It had seemed like such a smart idea at that time. Now it seemed
like she had parked her brain somewhere temporarily!
All the instructors at the aerobic studio had decided to
spend an evening together because they all genuinely enjoyed each other’s
company, but hardly had time to interact while at the studio. So the recent
joinees had hatched a movie and drinks plan. Of course it had to be a Saturday
because most of them had other jobs on weekdays unlike Jiya, whose weekends were
packed with things and weekdays as empty as a desert. But she was frankly
looking forward to having a good time. If only this stupid teenager would stop
singing songs and move on with her million shampoos.
And miraculously she was done just at that instant. It was
the man’s turn and how long could book take to bill. Jiya looked at the watch
again. if she finished here in five minutes, she would be home in twenty. Then she
could bathe and change up in another twenty. It would take her thirty minutes
to get to the theater. She would be there just 5 minutes before the movie
starts, though they were all supposed to get there thirty minutes before to
catch a cup of coffee. Jiya sighed. This was all based on the fact that she
would find no traffic, the geyser would be working at home and the auto guy
would be merciful. She sighed again.
Image from pixabay
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