“Good morning, ma’am. Welcome to Op-Mart.”
“Good morning, sir. Welcome to Op-Mart.”
“Good morning, ma’am. Welcome to Op-Mart.”
“Good morning … Death.” Fred laughed. “Welcome to Op-Mart. That’s quite a costume, sir. Or ma’am. But I’m going to have to ask you to leave the scythe either in your car or over at the help desk while you
shop.”
The hooded figure turned to Fred, who began to shiver.
“Cold. S-s-s-o c-c-old,” he whispered.
Death turned away slowly and walked down the main aisle. Fred rubbed his arms and began to warm up again. He looked around for help and realized there would be none.
Only the retiree who can’t afford to retire can see the Grim Reaper, he thought. Most of these people are the age of my grandkids. There aren’t even any people my age shopping right now.
He also realized that he couldn’t rush over to his manager and say, “Death is in the store! What are we going to do?”
Maybe I shouldn’t do anything. This is Death, after all. What could I possibly do? Maybe I should just be glad he isn’t here for me.
Curiosity forced Fred away from his post at the big automatic doors and he followed Death at a discreet distance. The Reaper appeared to be headed for appliances.
Fred moved a little faster to keep up, but he came to a quick halt as the Reaper stopped and turned to look at him. Death shrugged and went on about his business.
Fred followed Death into the air conditioner aisle where a middle-aged woman was hunched slightly to look at a small unit on the middle shelf. The Reaper reached up with his scythe and poked at a heavy air conditioner on the top shelf; Fred could see it was sitting too close to the edge and it wouldn’t take much prodding to fall.
He rushed forward, past Death and underneath his scythe. “Look out!” Fred shoved the woman out of the way and the air conditioner landed on him. The woman fell and her head hit the tiled concrete floor.
As Death led their spirits out of the store and toward Eternity, he turned to Fred.
“Two for the price of one. I’ll definitely come back here to shop.”
