2024-09-03: romaine?

i'm always amazed at how the brain works, or doesn't. i've got details of a year of my life that i've been trying to remember (after decades of trying to forget), and then sometimes things just come clattering out. but not anything useful. i was at the grocery store, and the cashier, a new girl, looked at my lettuce.

is this romaine?

i nod.

she looks over helplessly at the bagger, the code for romaine not memorized yet.

a number suddenly appears in my head. "4640?"

the bagger, an older lady, nods and smiles.

"twenty one years and it's still in there," i smile ruefully.

okay. what about bananas? the bagger asks me.

i don't even have to think. i'm twenty years old, standing behind the till back home, keying in codes. i instinctively feel the motion of my hand before i even start to say the number.

"4011."

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