This short write-up is a test of observation, description, and concision. The challenge of this piece was to stay true to real events in around 300 words while engaging the audience through word choice and presentation of reality.
6:37p.m. Automatic doors hiss open as shoppers file into aisles from the icy parking lot. Some comers hesitate at the entrance, ensuring they get a cart without a delinquent wheel. Giant floor cracks web through the polished concrete around food displays and between the water trails of shopping cart wheels. Smooth 80s Rock playing overhead is white noise to the space and overlays the general conversation of passersby. A young, dark-haired girl weaves past the onions and the colorful array of fresh vegetables on a motorized scooter with crutches crossed over her legs. She holds her phone with one hand in a vain attempt to text and drive. Across the aisle, a man in a windbreaker shuffles and inspects the strawberries which are not in season. The clear cartons turn over in his clumsy hands, taking the criticism of his eyes. A man with dark skin passes perpendicular to the strawberry bin, slouching tiredly over the handlebars of his shopping cart. His steps are slow and heavy with a hard day’s work. A trashcan booms from an indistinct corner, disrupting the chatter of shoppers for only a moment, but conversations crash together again like the watery curtains of the Red Sea. Playfully and carelessly, a small child spins her cart around and follows her father down towards the milk. She hangs far behind. Once the gap is big enough, she runs like an Olympian and tucks her feet, placing them on the metal basket at the base of the cart to catch a ride from the momentum. She laughs all the way until stammering to stop before slamming into her dad. The vegetables, grainy breads, and savory signs are the backdrop to this grocery scene on this weekday evening.
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