Bizarro Grocery Store

Some of you might remember this post where I wrote about a strange run-in my husband had at the grocery store. Long story, weird: A woman was crying outside the store because she wanted to "sell her action figure" and someone had promised to buy it but never came back. He took pity on her and bought it for $2.

So I was doing the shopping today and went through the basic pleasantries with the checkout lady--"Paper or plastic?", etc. and suddenly the bag lady says, apropos of nothing, "I have a Hot Wheels car."

I nodded and said something like "Oh!" with feigned enthusiasm, but I was thinking What the...?? Then I remembered the action figure incident. This must be the same person!

So she goes on to say "I'm selling it." Now if Don hadn't clued me in on the previous run-in, I would have been in the dark, but I decided to play along. "Oh really?" I say.

Now, suddenly, the check-out lady gets all crazy-like and starts glaring at the bag girl and muttering stuff at her--like warning her to stop. But the insane bag girl continues. "I'm trying to sell all my toys that I've already played with." she tells me.

Now the check-out lady walks out from behind her counter and over to the bag girl. She's all up in her face and is sort of hiss-whispering stuff like "Stop it!" "No!" This was crazy!!

She goes back to her post, but the bag freak is unstoppable! "So I'm selling it for a dollar," she continues. The check-out lady looks furious and is rolling her eyes. I wasn't sure what to do, so I go "OK, I'll buy it." The bag girl is thrilled. Check-out Lady glared at me.

She continued to bag and when she was done and I was waiting for my receipt she kind of secretly showed me her hand with the car peeking out of her fist. "Here's the little guy," she said.

Now I really didn't know what to do. I told her I would buy it but I felt really creepy about continuing the bizarre little transaction right there in the check-out aisle. I was afraid people would think I was doing a drug deal! I had visions of trying to explain myself to the police. "You see officer, I was just buying a Hot Wheels car from this crazy bag person. My husband bought an action figure from her last week!"

"Right, lady. Tell it to the judge."

So I mumbled something like "I'll just step over there," and I walked over to the florist area to wait. I fumbled though my wallet and got the dollar out, but the nutcase didn't come over! This is ridiculous, I thought, I don't even want the stupid car! I was just trying to be nice...

So I left, thinking that maybe she'd come out to the parking lot while I was loading the bags into the car--but she didn't.

When I got home, I told Don and he said "I'm sure she's outside the store crying right now."

So now I feel kind of guilty--but the whole thing gave me the creeps!

I was thinking that our Restaurant Adventures are going to have to end soon since the kids will be going back to school, so maybe my new Saturday blog should be "What Toy is the Insane Bag Lady Selling Today?"

What do you think!?