I wanted to be alone in the supermarket

Dear Delyara, Not because I’m hiding some glamorous secret life there. Because shopping with other people means it is never just shopping. It becomes commentary, requests, changed minds, extra things in the trolley, “can we get this,” “do we need that,” “why are these so expensive,” “did you remember the other thing,” and my own brain trying to calculate the bill without letting the mood show on my face too early. I think what I wanted was not solitude exactly. It was one practical task without emotional traffic attached to it. I didn’t get that. I got a trolley, a tired body, and too many voices near cereal.