We went grocery shopping tonight at Food City, the grocery store at the end of our road. We’ve been going to Arpico, the department store, but because of problems with our trishaw driver (last week, he abandoned us just as we came out with our bags and bags of groceries), we elected to take matters under our own control and walk. So, Food City it is!
While there, we had to find paper and a pencil for Fahim.
Fahim is on the lookout for an artist for his novel that he wants to self-publish. See, he’s thinking of giving up after being rejected by 80-something agents. So, has to get his own cover-art, and yadda yadda yadda.
Well, after looking at some portfolios and some fantastic artwork, Fahim got bit by the art bug. "How hard can it be?" he says. I laugh. I know this man is crazy, and here he is, confirming it one more time. I enquire about the possibility of, oh, I don’t know, books or tutorials or classes or something to teach him how to draw. "I don’t need no books. All I need is a pencil and paper." Just one. Pencil, that is.
Yes, because he’ll be a master by tomorrow. :rolleyes:
Whatever. Honey, you’re crazy, you’re really really really crazy, but yeah, I love you anyway. Sigh.
So, back to the grocery store.
And I think here I’ll interject with the reminder that every major business in Sri Lanka employs security guards. It’s partially with shoplifting in mind, but also in case of angry mobs. Twenty odd years of civil war with bombs and people dying all over the place will do that to people.
Food City has *thinks back* 2 or 4 on duty.
Anyway, even without the guards, it’s pretty crowded, what with it being a Saturday evening and all, so while he’s getting the veggies weighed, I’m off in the stationery section. I find a pack of 12 pencils "Great Wall of China" and an artist’s drawing pad. We only need one pencil.
We’re not sure if the pack is for sale as a whole, or if the pencils are available individually. We take one and hope.
We finish the grocery shopping, and when done, I put the list and my pen back in my purse and nearly put the pencil in with it. I joke about it to Fahim who says, and not joking, mind you, that I should just do it. We’re now standing at the meat counter. I refuse. To put the pencil in my purse, that is. We still get one chicken.
So what does Fahim do? He takes the pencil from me and slips it in his pocket. 😮
I can’t believe I married a thief. What has this world come to?
We’re done shopping, so we head to the checkout counter, and I plead with him, nay, I beg him, to come clean. I don’t want him going to jail over a pencil. 😥 Okay, in truth, I tell him I wash my hands of it. I can’t believe he’s actually considering doing this.
He tells me quietly that he only wants to buy one, not the whole load, and it’ll be less of a hassle to just take it. But then, he relents. He slyly takes the pencil out of his pocket when no one’s looking and asks the checkout girl about the pencil. Yeah, no problem, she says. Rs.4.50 ($0.045 US) gets tacked onto the bill. :wallbash: