Shopping

by Heather Hafer
My roommate Libby and I completed our first shopping trip at a small grocery store near the piazza. Pleased that we had managed to find most of what we were searching for, including fresh mozzarella and frizzante, we headed up to the cashier to pay. Believing we were waiting in line, we watched a mother stroll her infant up to the cashier to buy diapers. We watched a woman purchase a small item. We watched two nuns meander in front of us to pay for a few items. Surely a nun would not cut in line, I thought. We may still be standing there were it not for the cashier motioning us to move up to the counter. This line we were attempting to recreate was one formed by culture. In American we wait in lines. The Cagliese confidently approach the counter when they are ready to check out and participate in natural order, bending like a willow in the wind.