Ivan's arms were full as he waited in line and tried not to burst into a ball of anger from impatience. He thought if he were to explode, he'd be like a star going supernova and Ivan was comforted by the idea that the explosion would take out all the staff who worked in the grocery store.
Here Ivan was, struggling to hold his items, waiting for his turn to checkout, and there were two employees goofing off at a register that wasn't open, that wasn't open for him and the other customers lined up behind the three other open registers.
This was the second store Ivan had been to this evening. Luckily this one had the children's allergy medicine that Ivan needed for his daughter who was at home suffering with a cold. Ivan hadn't slept the whole night through for a week, caring for his sick daughter in the night. Ivan was angry. We'd put people on the moon, but yet we couldn't figure out how to develop a cold medicine for children, so Ivan was stuck with having to use allergy medicine, which wasn't super effective, but it was better than nothing, and his daughter needed it so she could sleep, so Ivan could sleep too.
The oblivious workers, a teenaged girl and a man in his early twenties, were goofing off and laughing and having a good old time. If Ivan's daughter hadn't needed the medicine so badly, Ivan would have just dropped the medicine, cough drops, and tissue boxes right on the floor and walked out. He imagined doing it, storming triumphantly away, and he pictured other customers high fiving him, clapping for him, and cheering for him. But that didn't happen. Instead something stranger happened.
A woman appeared who was dressed in all-black leather, wore a Samurai sword strapped to her back, and had a long dagger at her hip. And that wasn't even the strange part. The warrior woman had two naked creatures with her. Ivan had no idea what to call these two monsters. Orcs? Goblins?
Both monsters each held two packages of ground beef. Neither creature could stop moving. They shuffled up and down, side to side, and they grunted and snarled.
The warrior woman, and her bizarre companions, went right up to the closed register, and she asked, "Is this register open?" as she took the packages of ground beef from the monsters who, Ivan thought, didn't look too pleased to have to part with their meat. The worker in his twenties stammered, "Yesss."
The teenaged girl, who Ivan thought looked less terrified, said, "Did you find everything you were looking for?"
The warrior woman responded icily, "If you don't mind, I'm kind of in a hurry here."
The teenager raced to scan the monster's meat and the man couldn't stop starring at the creatures as he fumbled to put the meat into a plastic bag. Ivan cut the guy some slack as everyone in the entire store was also starring at the monsters.
The girl said sweetly, "That'll be $26.49."
And the warrior woman handed over some cash and said, "Keep the change."
Then the monsters were given their meat and they grunted louder, with glee. They trailed behind the woman who started to walk away.
Ivan set his things down on the belt, but the two workers weren't paying him any attention. They were chattering about what had just happened.
Then the warrior woman was back. She glared at the girl and the man and said, "Hey. Stop making this man wait. Can't you tell he's got a sick child at home?"
The End