• “Will you or won’t you?”

    Jenny stopped rifling through her purse and looked at the cashier. She must have missed something. Her keys had, once again, fallen to the bottom of the bag and she’d probably tuned him out while digging for them.

    “What?”, she said intelligently. Alright, it would have been intelligently except that she’d suddenly gotten a good look at his face. His was a face that belonged on movie screens and posters not under the flicking lights of this neighborhood grocery store. She’d done more than tune him out, she’d ignored him completely.

    He grinned at her. It was a cheeky sort of grin that told her he was used to people gaping at him. “Will you or won’t you?”, he repeated.

    “Will I or won’t I what?”, she asked. She secretly hoped, in a very small part of herself, that he’d just asked her to marry him but knew that this question was probably about whether or not she wanted to buy stamps. However, if it was all about stamps, the cashier was being annoyingly cryptic.

    The boy shook his head and repeated the same question. Cuteness could only get you so far she decided, and moved to pick up her eggs and bread off the belt. She would find a different register with a cashier who wasn’t so creepy.

    She was stopped by the feeling of nothing under her fingers. Thinking she’d misjudged the distance, Jenny looked down and discovered that her food was gone. Not only was her food gone, but so was the rest of the store. The only things in existence were her, the still smiling boy and oddly enough the register that separated the two of them.

    “What happened? Where are my eggs?”, she demanded. Perhaps, they weren’t the most salient questions to have asked at that point, but in her shock they were the first ones to come out.

    The cashier finally broke out of his one sentence rut and said, “Those are very fine questions. I couldn’t have done better myself.”

    “What are you talking about?” This question was marginally better, but only just, as shock was slowly wearing off allowing fear to settle in.

    “Excellent, you are in top form. The thing is, though, right now you don’t get to ask questions. All you have to do is answer one, not too difficult I think.”

    “What question is that?”

    The boy’s smile began to slip. “Will you or won’t you?” he said very slowly in a tone of voice that suggested he was talking to someone quite dumb.

    “That’s it?” she cried angrily.

    “Again with the questions.” he muttered. “Look, just answer the question and we can both go on our merry ways.”

    Jenny gaped at him, much like she had earlier when things had still been normal.

    “Will or won’t you?” he asked one last time.

    “I don’t know.” she answered.

    “Ah, well that is an answer too.”, he replied looking faintly puzzled.

    There was nothing and then the sound of an all together different voice broke the silence.

    “Miss, that comes to $ 3.25.”

    Jenny shook her head, shaking off a momentary sense of confusion and handed the lady a five dollar bill. She collected her change, gathered up her groceries, and quickly left the store as she felt a headache coming on.