It’s a Bags Life

He had been depressed for a while and life had meant little to him .
He never realised how he treated those around him.
He lived a lonely life and only went out twice a week .
Once to do his weekly shopping and once to church .

Since his wife died he cared for nothing and no one .
With a dislike for people he liked to get shopping done early as to avoid seeing people he might know .

His shopping list was always the same . Nothing ever changed .

One windy autumn morning he made his way to the supermarket and as always parked his car beside the front door and went to get the shopping ordeal out of the way . With his goods inside the trolley he made his way to the checkout where the young lady waited with a friendly smile .

“Good morning sir . How are you ?“

He never replied .

The shop assistant continued to be friendly and said ,

“Would you like a bag ?”
The question fell on dead air for a moment . The unshaven and cranky customer stood there and looked at the checkout operator before saying ,

“Tell you what . Why don’t you deliver my groceries or even carry them , one by one to the car . Of course I want a bag .”

“Right then . Thank you sir .”

One by one the girl at the till proceded to ring up each item and place then into a plastic carry bag .

The express checkout was now getting busy and people stood in a long line waiting to be served . You could almost feel them psychologically urging those in front of them to get along so they could be attended to .

The customer paid for his groceries and lifted the two plastic bags from the counter but as he did the bags split at the bottom . Bottles of vinegar , sauce and oil tumbled out on to the floor .

“ I’m sick of these stupid bags of yours .“
The customer screamed .

“I’m terribly sorry sir .“

The checkout operator tried to make an apology for the weakness of the bags as she attempted to pick everything up from the floor .

“Maybe this time you should consider using two bags instead of one and while I think of it give me a spare few in case they break open on the way back to my car .

The other customers in the queue were getting edgy . Eventually with all the items now placed into two bags the customer again lifted the bags from the counter .

Smiling at the customer and hoping that the bags would not break again the girl on the checkout tried her best to be friendly and said ,

“Thank you for shopping at our store sir . Have a nice day . ”

“Well it hasn’t been a good start thanks to your flimsy excuse for a carry bag . I’m going to write a letter of complaint . “

“Thank you sir . Next please .“

He muttered something under his breath and eventually made his way from the supermarket to the car park . As he walked he tutted and mumbled all the way to his car . Everything now was a effort for the man . His attitude had now grown to simmering point . By the time he got to his car he was cursing the two plastic bags that he placed on the ground at his car .
He dove his hands into his pocket reaching for his cars keys .
In doing so he dislodged one of the plastic bags that was here .
The plastic bag was lifted into the air by a gust of wind that propelled the bag along the street . The irate man now was throwing abuse after the wind that had took his bag . The bag was free and wildly dancing on the morning breeze that blew it down an alleyway , where a vagrant sat holding a bottle in his hand . The breeze dropped and the bag landed beside the tramp who reached and grabbed it . He put his bottle of vodka into the bag and got to his feet . He carefully carried the bag in his hand along the alleyway into the street . Crossing the road at the traffic lights he shuffled along the sidewalk and through the main gate of the park . He made his way to a bench and sat in the warmth o the early morning sunshine .

In between vodka sips he was joined by people who knew him . He enjoyed the company of passers by and now and then would share a word with those who looked at him .When his bottle was nearly empty he took it from the bag and held it up to make how much was left . As he did this the plastic bag was blown away by the wind across the park . It came to rest on a railing around a flower bed where it fluttered for a few moments until it escaped between the railings only to get trapped in the braches of a rose bush . The bag remained there until the man who maintained the garden beds arrived . When he spotted the bag the gardener went to remove the plastic bag from the rose bush but in his attempt to grab the bag , he lost his balance and fell .
As he landed on top of the rose bush the fall enabled the plastic bag to blow away again in the wind . High into the bag flew . It flapped and it fell against the top of a telegraph pole where it remained until an inquisitive blackbird appeared . The bird had a peck and then checked out what was inside the plastic bag . When the bird was satisfied there was nothing worth while there it too off in flight but the handles of the bag had somehow wrapped themselves around the birds leg . Like a shackled prisoner the blackbird fell to the ground in an emergency landing . When the bird freed the bag from its legs once again the bag was taken by the wind and tossed around in the air and along the ground . A playful pup now spied the bag as it rolled along the sidewalk . The dog started to chase the plastic bag . In and out and around and around the bag went past people on the footpath , chased by a overactive dog with nothing better to do . Without looking both ways the dog ran on to the road right in front of a truck that swerved to miss the dog . The car that swerved to miss the truck narrowly missed a woman who was walking past with her baby in a pram . The car ploughed through a fence and hit a brick wall of a building . People gathered and soon an police and an ambulance arrived . Inside the car was a man and two bags of groceries that had been scattered everywhere in the car . The man was semi-conscious when the paramedics put him on to a stretcher .

One of the eye witnesses who spoke to the police was the shop assistant who had actually served the causality earlier on that morning .

Unseen by those there at the scene of the accident was a plastic bag .
Sent scurrying on the breeze towards he car the plastic bag somehow made its way in through the smashed windscreen on the drivers side and came to rest on the back seat of the damaged car .
Before the car was towed away the police repacked all the scattered grocery items and placed the bags into the back of the ambulance with the causality .

The back doors of the ambulance was closed and with flashing lights and the siren sounding the ambulance drove away towards the hospital .

Luckily no one was killed and later that evening the checkout operator contacted the hospital to see how the man was doing .
She even visited him one evening which had made such an impact that he began to make a speedy recovery .

After he was discharged form hospital the man had a new attitude to life .
A penny had dropped due to a young girls concern for him .

Sometimes it takes a near death experience or a tragedy for people to see life in a different way .

The End

By Paul McCann