990066

By R. Cane

Novella: 990066. Strange times after a sickness leaves everyone mostly indoors, living lives of limited movement. Barely on the edge of adulthood when it started, a young woman lives, learns in the only way she can figure – vicariously – through her customers shopping lists. Imagining their lives, meals, sussing details from what they buy, and don’t, getting lost in their lives to help get through being so restricted in her own. Until reality storms fantasy and she is faced with some very real choices in a beautiful musician who is far from shy about what she wants. What will our girl do?

Sample from 990066:

I get my excitement looking at other people’s shopping lists, live through them, really. I imagine who ordered the things I pick - how many are in their houses, are they a couple? Friends? Parents with kids? It’s amazing what you can detect from grocery lists.

...

It’s a pretty busy afternoon, I have a few lists. Good, busy is better. And oh! 990066! She’s one of my favorites. When I close my eyes, I picture her as beautiful, tall, in shape, fair. I’m not sure why, her diet just feels blond? She gets a lot of fish, vegetables, grains, some chicken, beef too sometimes, but not as much - orders every week or two. Not too many vitamins or health things. Lots of spices and herbs. Her house must smell awesome from the aromatics she orders. And she can cook. She chooses unusual things like pine nuts, curry powder, hearts of palm, black rice – who would order those if they weren’t a good cook? I first noticed her because of that great number, who gets a nice balanced number like that? I’ve decided she must be lucky too. I could ask Mel what she looks like, but it would kill my fun, the game of it.

I scan through her list – ‘3 mangoes - just a little red, to be ripe in 2 to 3 days’. I love this woman! So precise and clear. It’s easy to do a good job with her list because she describes everything so well. Maybe she’s a writer? I sometimes wish the lists were hand-written, I want to know what her writing looks like – pretty, loopy, elegant, smooth, I would bet. Sigh. She also wants rice (short), eggs, olive oil (unfiltered, first press, Sicilian), toilet paper – eek. It can be strange picking out people’s groceries, and interesting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R. Cane
• Release date: May 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463414644

R. Cane

Finding the human condition and our antics endlessly fascinating, I tend to write ‘slice of life’ pieces about moments, situations, interactions, personalities – most often with some amount of humor or irony, always with wonder. The subject or subjects are frequently lgbtq, w/w, to the degree it matters, since people are people, stories are stories.

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990066

by R. Cane

Published by R. Cane

Copyright 2020 R. Cane, including art, images

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990066

Yesterday I found a picture of my grandmother. She was sweet, smart, knew so much! We lost her in the first wave. Thinking of her stories, it strikes me how different things are now. I wonder how I would explain it to her, or anyone not living in this.

It’s Monday, I think. Ever since the sickness and everyone staying home, working from home if they can, it’s easy to get confused. Even for those of us who go out to work for a service company, life is so cyclical – work, sleep, work, sleep – we do not go outdoors much, and can’t gather in groups, so this is about it. Same walls, same limited number of people. That’s why I am never sure what day it is – until I am at work, look at the pull slips, thankfully they are dated.

Pull slips are my life. I get my excitement looking at other people’s shopping lists, live through them, really. I imagine who ordered the things I pick - how many are in their houses, are they a couple? Friends? Parents with kids? It’s amazing what you can detect from grocery lists. Some are obvious - diapers, baby food, baby wipes. Oh wait, not exactly. I once filled in for Mel, my friend in deliveries. It was a two-person shift, the driver and I had this pile of diapers, wipes, and baby bottles – which we delivered to two very handsome, bearded men, in a tiny shi-shi apartment – no way there were any legit infants in there! To each their own, no judgment, but it taught me I can predict for fun, but you never really know.

I have my job because no one can shop for themselves any more, it became impossible to manage. Too many people in the same place, touching things, then too many people without food, goods, because the restrictions became so tight there was no way for everyone to cycle through stores. Now there are a few companies with huge warehouses and staff like me to ‘pick’ the items ordered, get them to deliveries. The work is monotonous in these massive, engineered tin cans, but it’s work, and lacking any real skill set, I am lucky to have it.

One of my favorite ways to pass the time is imagining what my shoppers are going to cook based on their lists. I don’t cook much, mostly bring home ‘ready to go’, one of the perks of working in shopping service, groceries to be precise, we get to take a certain amount with us in addition to our pay. Not the good stuff, but still, it’s really helpful these days. I have become fascinated by other people’s food, watch all the cooking shows, old and new. Armed with my TV knowledge, I sometimes try to guess ethnicity, not that I ever know if I am right. One client orders lots of dried peppers, dried beans, masa harina, onions, tomatoes, herbs, chicken thighs, tell-tale ingredients leading to meals I would love to drop in on. That’s it, how I keep my mind busy in an effort not to lose it, which, sadly, many people do – but I don’t like to think about that.

This is my life now - and these days it is clear it might be my life for quite some time, maybe all my time.

When people first started getting sick everyone thought it was a cold, or tainted ingredients – you know, when they used to recall things because they were contaminated and all? Of course that never happens any more, things are so carefully monitored. The numbers kept growing, and then different countries started comparing notes. It was slightly different in each locale, but the basics were the same. By the time anyone fully understood what was going on, and that it could be passed on surfaces, a lot of people were sick, dead.

That was three years ago. I hardly remember life before. Running, being outside, full streets, restaurants, bars. We have virtual gatherings now. They can be ok. If you can forget what real contact was like. There are days when I eye up my co-workers just because they are there, and warm, and their skin – I miss skin…

Anyway. It’s the same for everyone so I shouldn’t complain. We each get a certain amount of time outside. This is scheduled based on the area you live