Shopping Baskets

Whenever I'm waiting in line at the supermarket, I can't resist looking at what the person (or turtle) in front of me is buying, and trying to deduce the story of their life.

For instance, the strained looking woman buying a number of bags of pasta, a large bottle of premade pasta sauce, and a box of bath salts: I see a stressful and probably dull job that eats away at her life and an apartment where she lives alone. She will have a nervous breakdown within the next five years. I am surprised by the lack of small tins of gourmet cat food, but I can only report what I see.

What am I to make, though, of what I saw tonight? A man buying two boxes of plain household candles, two containers of silly putty, and a deck of playing cards. He's got something on his mind, but I can't say what.