The door of the town market opened, and in walked a boy and his mother. Though the boy, Ralph, was afraid to leave his mother, the thought always crossed his mind. Plus, if he did leave his mother, he wouldn’t get to pick out a fun treat before they left. Ralph would always take one of the “little-kid” carts, those carts that had the “Shopper-In-Training” flag on them. He trailed behind her, with his mini-cart. While she would stop to pick up boxed mashed potatoes or a loaf of bread, he would stop to pick up the usual market toys that hang from the shelves or the typical coupon of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream that his mother would inevitably throw away when they got home. Mother would always get some type of meat, and while she got the plastic baggie, the meat, and the twisty ties, Ralph would just grab the twisty ties and put them on his fingers. Sometimes he would take some home, whether he stuffed them in his pockets or tied them around his fingers. Even on those rare occasions when mother didn’t get meat, Ralph would always look for those twisty ties.

Mother would, of course, run into a friend or two, who always see Ralph and say, “Wow, look at how big you’ve gotten” and he would just smile and say, “Yeah, I’m almost bigger than my brother.” Ralph and his mother both knew that he was nowhere near as big as his brother, but it was just part of the game. The boy would always want the “Huggies” drinks, a whole pack of them. You can’t just have one Huggie; you wouldn’t get the whole experience of all the flavors.



As they walk to the checkout line, Ralph would always want some sort of treat. He would never ask for the treat, he would just take it off the shelf and put it on the conveyer, hoping that mother wouldn’t notice. The checkout lady was always nice, but that’s because mother would always seek to get the nice checkout lady. After they check out, Ralph would try to show off his muscles by pushing the cart, but mother would take over and Ralph would just sit in the cart and be pushed. The car would always be parked not too far away from the store, but far enough to cause the boy to sprint as fast as possible. When they got to the car, Ralph would pick up one or two bags and put them in the trunk, then go play with his toys in the back seat.



On their way home, Ralph would be in the back, and mother would, obviously, be driving. Ralph would “philosophically” look out the window, thinking he was such a cool kid. As the lyrics “time cast a spell on you, but you won’t forget me” from the Fleetwood Mac song “Silver Springs” would play on the radio, Ralph, for some reason, would always think about his Grandfather. He would always come to Ralph’s mind anytime that song was heard, and Ralph never knew why. But as the groceries jostled around in the back, mother would always ask, “what fell” and Ralph would respond with a typical kid answer “I don’t know,” forgetting what he was just thinking about.



Finally, they got home from the store. Mother would always ask Ralph to help take the bags of groceries inside. Naturally, Ralph would do as his mother asked, and he would take a couple of bags in. Then he would just stay inside, hoping that his mother wouldn’t notice that he wasn’t helping anymore. He thinks that she noticed, but she would just let him keep playing. He was always playing.