Grocery-shopping vignette

[ellarien]

I went out this evening to pick up a few groceries in the relative -- extremely relative -- cool just after sunset. Now, my neighbourhood is not particularly upscale, being at least as much made up of apartment complexes as single-family homes, with a trailer park, some medical and suchlike offices, and the mostly-dismantled remains of a small hospital for variety. It is not, however, an inner-city ghetto, and I've never felt in the least uncomfortable in my local grocery store.

Tonight, though, there were two young men in the checkout line ahead of me who had my nerves twanging in a way they haven't in years, and probably quite unfairly. They were very similar in appearance: both short, fit, dark-skinned, restlessly mobile, with shaven heads and goatees. Both wore black shirts, one with white pants and black shoes, the other with black pants and white shoes. They weren't loud or threatening at all. The really weird thing about them was the protective way they hovered over the 30-pack of Bud Light that was their sole purchase, guarding it, keeping a hand on it at all times, making quite sure, when they finally let me put my own purchases on the belt behind it, that there was a six-foot expanse of belt as well as the divider between the beer and my stuff -- almost as if they expected me to run off with it if given the chance, or sneak it into my pile of frozen entrees and breakfast smoothies. They looked young enough that I was half-expecting an altercation over ID, but nothing happened; one of them gave his phone number for the discount card scheme, and they paid with a wad of dollar bills and left.

I don't know quite what to make of all this, so I'm just noting it for future reference and as a small writing exercise.

Comments

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

It's my experience that the animal in us finds Young Males inherently scary. I'm not quite sure why this should be, but since having this realization I have observed that we spend a lot of societal time and energy attempting to control Young Males.

MKK

[ellarien]

That might well be it. And there being two at once, in a place -- a single slot in a checkout line -- where I wouldn't normally expect that, was enough to set off low-level alarms in my head.