My prescription was ready but I was not so, I was perusing the After Halloween sale isle at target. Piles of trampled costumes and equally appealing bags of candy lay strewn about as if looters had rejected these and focused their desires on the next big Holiday. I stood eyeballing the debris. Then I saw it. Buried beneath a Disney princess dress, partially obscured by a ghost piñata, the glossy, unmistakable grill protruded from the mess. I could hear the heavy breathing in my mind – Darth Vader’s helmet!
I pulled the plastic replica from the debris field, smile beaming. My wife stood looking at me. Knowingly. Quietly resigned to the sudden and immediate joy I was clearly experiencing. I held it out for her to see. “Yes. I can see it,” she said patiently, leaving the “you idiot” part out of the communique. I tucked the plastic prize under my arm and began looking for a scanner. “Found it!” A brief bleep and instant confirmation of my belief. It was, indeed, half price. I looked back at my lovely bride. “It is half price,” she said. At once approving the purchase and confirming the bargain in the same sentence.
So, that happened. The girl at the prescription counter admired it then dropped it on the counter, causing me to wince. She rang me up and we left, one of us feeling prouder than the other. In the car, she asked, “We’re you going to wear that home?” And we ran through scenarios where a Darth Vader Mask might be fun. Riding my mountain bike. Ordering at the drive-through… Would you like fries with that today? “Silence! I find your lack of Pumpkin Spiced Lattes disturbing.”
