杂货店里的老师

我们总会遇到这样一类人——他们像恼人的虫子一样，不时蛰你一下，给你原本波澜不惊的生活增添烦恼。但在那一刹那阵痛过后，你有否静下心来想过，那刺痛留给你的真的仅仅只是遇人不淑的痛苦回忆？

You went to the butcher's for meat, the pharmacy for aspirin, and the grocery store for food. But when I spent the summer with my Grandmother in Warwick, N.Y., she sent me down to the general store with a list. How could I hope to find anything on the packed, jumbled shelves around me?

I walked up to the counter. Behind it was a lady like no one I'd ever seen. Fake-jewel-encrusted glasses teetered on the tip of her nose, gray hair was piled on her head.

"Excuse me," I said. She looked up.

"You're that Clements kid," she said. "I'm Miss Bee. Come closer and let me get a look at you." She pushed her glasses up her nose. "I want to be able to describe you to the sheriff if something goes missing from the store."

"I'm not a thief!" I was shocked. I was seven year too young to be a thief!

"From what I can see you're not much of anything. But I can tell you've got potential." She went back to reading her newspaper.

"I need to get these." I said, holding up my list.

"So? Go get them." Miss Bee pointed to a sign on the screen door. "There's no one here except you and me and I’m not your servant, so I suggest you get yourself a basket from that pile over there and start filling. If you're lucky you'll be home by sundown."

Sundown was five hours away. I wasn't sure I would make it.

I scanned the nearest shelf for the first item on my list: pork and beans. It took me three wall-to-wall searches before I found a can nestled between boxes of cereal and bread. Next up was toilet paper, found under the daily newspaper. Band-Aids—where had I seen them? Oh, ye next to the face cream. The store was a puzzle, but it held some surprises too. I found a new Superman comic tucked behind the peanut butter.