Member-only story
The Prerogative of Age
Pair with The End of the Innocence by Don Henley
“I saw her take a roast!” the woman behind me says to the cashier.
I was so close to making it out of the store with the six lbs beast. I rearrange my face into confusion and disbelief. The cashier looks at me. I can see she is hesitant to take on a sweet old lady. Good girl.
“I saw it with my own eyes,” the woman says, “she put it in her bag!”
As if indulging her claim I open my purse and show it first to the cashier with a conspiratory eye roll, then to the woman with defiance.
“No, not in there,” the woman insists, “in the grocery bag!”
I cannot believe this bitch. She should mind her own effing business. I look down at my sturdy blue coat and swing my arms a bit to seem surprised to discover the grocery bag.
“Oh dear,” I say loading my voice with embarrassment and apology “I must have forgotten. Since my 87th birthday, my memory has gone a bit.”
I win some; I lose some. I am just happy the woman did not notice the bottle of Jack in my pocket.
Regitze Ladekarl has re-emerged as a raconteur after a long, successful career elsewhere. She crafts universal tales from everyday life with an honest and witty pen. Besides working on a forthcoming novel, she sharpens her voice with personal essays, flash fiction, and method writing here on Medium.
