Sherlock Holmes at the Grocery Story

By Molly Pink from the Crochet Mysteries by Betty Hechtman.

My name is Molly Pink and I'm a sometimes sleuth and an always crocheter. You know how some people hate waiting in line at the grocery store. Not me. It gives me the chance to play what I call Sherlock Holmes. I like to see what I can deduce about the people ahead of me in line by what they are buying. I like doing it so much, sometimes I wish the line would go slower.

Here's an example from the other day. I watched the couple ahead of me unload their cart onto the conveyer belt. The woman was draped in a loose tunic over pants that camouflaged but didn't totally cover up her round shape. The man wore jeans with a belt like the one's Mitt Romney wears, only this guy had a neat polo shirt on top instead of a button down collar dress shirt.

I counted four Lean Cuisine entrees, a box of sugar free sugar cookies (isn't that an oxymoron like fat free sour cream), a six pack of zero calories flavored sparkling water, two rib eye steaks, a box of frozen fried chicken, two baking potatoes, a ready made caesar salad for one, and a loaf of freshly made rustic bread.

You probably already came to the same conclusion I did. One of them was on a diet and one wasn't. I'm guessing it was her because I don't believe any guy, even if he was on a diet, would buy sugar free cookies.

It's actually due to my Sherlock Holmes game that I met my sometimes boyfriend homicide detective Barry Greenberg. Any of you who know me, also know I think boyfriend is a stupid title for a man in his fifties, even if he is pretty high on the hot meter.

He was ahead of me in line. He didn't even have a cart, just one of those handheld things. But then all he put on the conveyer belt was a box of frozen mac and cheese and a six pack of beer. It looked pretty lonely to me. Particularly when I started to unload my groceries and put them on the conveyer belt. I was shopping for a dinner party.

Well, to cut to the chase, we started talking and I ended up inviting him to my dinner party. It's not quite as weird as it sounds. It's not like I go around picking up guys in the grocery store, even though since I'm a widow, I suppose I could. I did sort of know him. I'd gotten a completely undeserved traffic ticket and gone to traffic school to get it off my record. Barry had been a last minute stand in for the cop that was supposed to teach the class.

By the way, I could tell by the speed of Barry's acceptance that I'd been right about his dinner plans seeming lonely. Who knew my game would actually come with a prize?