(A short story)

So colourful!

Olivia had just stepped into the food aisle at the supermarket. Sunday afternoons were for grocery shopping.

She’d always found supermarkets intriguing. They were magical places with aisles that stretched out forever and rows of shelves that seemed to touch the ceiling. Hundreds of products with colourful labels adorned the shelves.

Her attention was captured by a row of jams with brightly coloured labels. “Jam-Packed” was scrawled across in large purple lettering. She picked up a jar and read, “Try our refreshing new organic jams – packed with antioxidants and vitamins.” This organic stuff is all the rage nowadays, she thought to herself. She ran her fingers along the bottles on the shelf, reading the flavours as she went. Blackcurrant. Yummy! Raspberry. Oh, that would be lovely on toast. Mixed fruit. Yawn, that’s boring. Gooseberry. Hmm, haven’t tried that before.

So many choices!

Olivia liked having choices but had always found it difficult to choose. In her personal life too, she struggled with choices. She’d been considering the idea of leaving her full-time job as a middle-school teacher to become a writer. She’d always loved weaving tales of mystery and intrigue. Miss Grattidge, her English teacher in high school, had encouraged her to write. She’d taken the advice and had written a few short stories that had been published in various magazines over the years. She now wanted to work on a novel.

Travelling the world was another item on her bucket list. She wanted to start a travel blog. There was so much she could do, and so much she wanted to do. If only she could decide which flavour of jam to buy!

A loud crash behind her broke her reverie. She swung around, startled. A store assistant was standing atop a step ladder, looking at her sheepishly. He’d been trying to change an overhead bulb. Juggling the old bulb that he had just unscrewed and its replacement, he had dropped one of them.

“Sorry for startling you”, he grinned and said to Olivia as he climbed down to inspect the bulb he still held in his hand.

“That’s quite alright, no need to apologise”, she smiled back. “Here let me help you.”

She waited while he climbed back up the ladder and handed him the new bulb.

He smiled and thanked her as he concentrated on putting the new light bulb in.

Olivia returned to the jams.

“Can’t decide, huh?”, said a voice behind her.

She turned around to see the store assistant. He had climbed off the ladder and was now looking at her, smiling.

“No”, she laughed. “I always have trouble making choices. Why do we need so much variety?!”, she said shaking her head.

“Well, you know how the saying goes. Variety is the spice of life”, he grinned at her, as he folded the step ladder.

“Oh no, that means more choices to make!”, she said in mock desperation.

“Well, the way I look at it, Miss, is that it’s nice to be able to choose. A single choice can’t hurt you. If you choose wrong, well you can always choose right again tomorrow”, he smiled at her.

He hoisted the step ladder over the shoulder, wished her a good day and walked away, presumably back to his duties.

As she stood alone in the aisle, she marvelled at how simple he had made it seem. Choose today. Choose again tomorrow. If you make a bad choice, make the right one next time. It sounded easy enough, and to be honest, a little exciting too. She had the freedom and the power to choose. She could choose anything!

She picked up a bottle of gooseberry jam and continued with the rest of her shopping.

As she paid for her purchases and left the store, she couldn’t help but ponder. Supermarkets, in your childhood, meant racing in the aisles. In adulthood, they make you philosophical. They remind you that you always have a choice. You keep making your choices and moving on.

She’d had a revelation. She smiled to herself.

Sometimes it’s good to choose something new, and try out a new flavour of jam, or even a new career.