To The Woman in Acme Who Scolded Me for Leaving My Purse in the Cart

I’m over in produce, picking out the right head of red leaf, thinking about work I haven’t finished and a run I want to get in, when I hear a voice slightly louder than usual, “Is this yours? Who’s is this? Yours? Who left this here?”

I look up and she’s point to the grocery cart I left one aisle over. This is a busy time of day and the carts are so big, I just parked it in front of the brussels sprouts to get the lettuce, figuring no one was going for the sprouts. I left my purse in the child seat of the cart and there she was, standing next to it and pointing at it.

“That’s mine,” I say.

She scowls, literally scowls, at me. “Don’t you think someone might steal this?”

Honestly, I don’t. I’m one aisle away and can see it. And I think, if they do, so what? I cancel my credit cards. Renew my license. No big deal. I buy cheap purses so I’d be out maybe $10. And I hate carrying my purse over my shoulder as I shop; it falls into the apples, slides down my arm as I grab a milk.

Besides, I trust my fellow shoppers! Everyone here is doing the same thing, getting through this day, getting what we need so we can get home, trying to satisfy whatever it is that we can with items found in a grocery store. This is a sister and brotherhood extraordinaire, fighting the good fight. We are all Willy Loman.

No no no, she says. I don’t know why she is so concerned about whether or not my purse gets stolen, but clearly she’s not shopping in the same store I am. Am I tempting someone needlessly? Like putting a bottle of wine, unopened, on the table of someone who just gave up drinking? And if someone does steal it and I make a fuss, would that mean that now this store, her store, would be considered unsafe? And she’ll have to live with that, too? The store will a reputation because some crazy lazy woman left her purse in the middle of the aisle.

I see her a few minutes later in the cereals. She shakes her head as she passes me and I can feel what she’s thinking: Everything goes your way. The world just works for you; there’s a red carpet everywhere. I keep my keys in my front pocket and my purse tucked under my arm.  Has your faith never been tested?