Costco Lit

An excerpt from the novel-in-progress...

It’s a weekday, a Tuesday, but the Costco parking lot is packed. Karen manages to find an orphaned cart and, once inside, starts navigating the aisles and the shoppers and the darting kids. Costco always overwhelmed her, all that space and the endless items for purchase. It’s usually best to have a list, but she does not have a list, this is a dangerous impromptu visit, and so she wanders from section to section. She buys cookies and snacks and an assortment of juices (apple, grape, kiwi, mango) for the visitors. Plus paper cups and plates and napkins and more. The cart quickly fills. She realizes she’s hungry and so she says yes to every sample item offered to her, the people wearing their doctorly white jackets and rubber gloves and smiling, smiling, smiling. Suddenly it seems very important to have a vast quantity of oatmeal.