The Broken Fade

Chapter Three- Grocery Incident

Emma had know idea why eight out of ten times she had picked a cart with wobbly wheels when she went to grocery shopping at Supermart. Since she had always lived in the calm reality of her mind instead of the truth and activities that destiny had easily and randomly jotted out, she was always prone to such 'accidental' matters that she had yet put upon herself. Taking other students' books at the library instead of hers, absent-mindedly speaking to someone, friend or foe or guest, and later to realize that that certain person had long walked away or left. Funny it seems, doesn't it?

This was the third time grocery shopping without her mother's companying. Well, she wouldn't be around the next time Emma went to Supermart as well. And the next time after that, and after the next time she went, and after, and forever-ever after. 

Emma was a whole lot of awful at cooking. Mother and Grandmother had both called her a "distressing learner" every single time she had tried to cook nicely, but everything, all good expectations, skidded off the track she had expected to be on. Everything, the taste, the aroma ("Smell, no aroma." Her grandmother would say), the look of it, no one would ever want to taste Emma's disgusting cookings. Neither did they want to hear her brag her typical and usual excuses of the mistakes she made, that she couldn't find the measuring cylinder and simply estimated the amount of salt to be sprinkled, or the amount of baking powder to add while you are in the process of baking a delicious, creamy cake that would be such an ideal extravaganza to everyone. 

As she turned to the canned foods and tins aisle, she bent down and took a look at some canned mushrooms. "Cheaper stuff are always put at the bottom area of the aisle," Mum had advised Emma on behalf of teaching her ways to be thrifty, unlike her extravagant dad who brought every new thing he could find in this tiny world of a sleepy town home. But strange in a way is that his dad would always buy things, that would be eventually used, eaten, or misplaced. But not ignored and kept in a cardboard or shelf, not left untouched. 

She randomly picked out two canned mushrooms branded 'Ambrosia'. No idea what does Ambrosia means, neither do I have any idea if this cheap mushroom can is just made of melamine? Emma eyed the cans as she skeptically checked their ingredients and their country of origin. Scotland. Alright, since when Scotland was famous for their mushroom products? Never mind that. Her tummy was rumbling softly. I need to feed myself and this is no period of the day where I can take my sweet time picking out fingerlicking good food, Emma miserably reminded herself. She still had heaps of A Maths assignments on her table, waiting for her to complete the unsolved and brainstorming equations. 

After picking Quaker's oatmeal mini-pack, some Oreo cheesecake weighing one pound at the bakery section, and a few hand towels she had lost to the previous night's howling wind (She'd left them out to dry and had forgotten to keep them when the sun had just begun to set).

"Now, vegetables, fruits, meat and sweet treats." Emma mumbled, seeing her imaginary grocery shopping checklist in her mind.

She pushed the cart towards the meat counter and ordered two kilos of beef, plus a kilo of mutton. Curry muttons were Mum's best secret recipes. Too bad Mum had kept the secret recipe to her one and only self. And what's more, not only did her Mum bring herself to the grave, but she brought along her secretive curry mutton recipe. 

Emma sighed at the thought of it. The butcher, Mister 'Beefyyguy', Emma had recalled calling him that name since she has a mere six year-old, smiled at her as she handed a plastic bag of beef and another with mutton. 

She settled the plastic bags in the cart and as she wandered her way to the vegetables and fruits section, a cart violently banged into hers, and threw her off her feet. 

Bam! The tin cans rolled away on their sides as Emma's cart fell on one side. Emma swore under her breath before seeing a hand reaching out to get her up to her feet.