A Trip to the Grocery Store: Part II An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle

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A Trip to the Grocery Store: Part II

An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle

            “I’m pushing the carriage!”

            “No, I am!” Johnny snapped, shoving Sebastian out of the way only to get shoved back seconds later while Trevor stood there, grocery list in hand, staring off at posters promising boneless, skinless chicken breasts at a “Buy One Get One Free” offer and not really seeing it.

            He still wasn’t sure how it happened.

            Once he’d managed to get the boys in the car without them “tinkering” with Principal Anderson’s car as they’d called it, he’d called his wife and hunted her down at Bradford Construction’s main office. Fifteen minutes later he was parking next to his wife’s SUV and looking forward to working the rest of the afternoon. Ten after that, Zoe was giving him a kiss, an apology, slapping a huge grocery list in his hand and shoving his towards her car….

            With the boys in tow.

            Somehow, and he still wasn’t sure how this happened, Zoe had convinced Uncle Jarred to give him the next two weeks off with pay so that he could take care of the boys while she used that time to catch the office up on paperwork, payroll and a bunch of other bullshit excuses that she’d managed to come up with so that she could stick him with twin duty.

            “I’m pushing!” Sebastian snapped, grabbing Johnny by the arm and in less than a second, had his twin brother in a headlock that would make any Bradford male, and a few females, proud.

            Sighing heavily, Trevor reached over and pulled his boys apart. “Johnny is pushing,” he said, placing his now gloating son in front of the carriage and handed the list over to Sebastian, “and you’re on list duty.”

            As much as he knew how badly his son wanted to bitch, he didn’t. Not even when Trevor pulled a second carriage loose and pushed it towards the produce section. His boys knew the deal with his dyslexia and since they’d learned to read at the ripe old age of one, had taken their duty to read for their father seriously.

            “Ah, Dad?” Sebastian said, catching up with them near the apple section.

            “What?” he asked, holding a plastic produce bag while Johnny filled it with Gala apples.

            “I think mom’s on another diet,” Sebastian announced with a pained grimace as he handed the list over to Johnny, who quickly scanned the list and matched his brother’s grimace with one of his own.

            Closing his eyes and dropping his head back in defeat, Trevor asked, “How bad?”

            “Pretty bad,” Johnny murmured.

            “It looks like she’s planning on making all of us eat healthy again,” Sebastian said, confirming his worst fears.

            When would she learn? he wondered, rubbing his hands down his face.

            You couldn’t force a Bradford to do anything when it came to food, but his wife didn’t seem to understand that. Every now and then when she went on a health food kick, taking it as her duty to make them all eat healthy. It didn’t matter that there wasn’t a single Bradford alive that was overweight, had high cholesterol, or any other health related problems when it came to food. She let some book or television program convince her that their lives depended on her making burnt tofu and they all suffered.

            It never ended well for her.

            “Everything on this list is either organic or all natural, Dad,” Sebastian informed him, all business now that his junk food was being threatened.

             He dropped his hands away and faced his sons, who looked ready for battle. “Is there anything on that list that we actually need? Like milk or butter?”

            “She’s asking for coconut milk and margarine,” Johnny answered with a snort of disgust.

            He leveled a look on Sebastian. “You know what to do.”

            Sebastian hesitated with the list in his hand. “Are you sure?”

            “Yes,” he said with absolutely no hesitation since there was no way that he was going to force his children to endure another one of their mother’s health kicks. He was a grown man and could easily grab some real food anytime he wanted it, but his children were at the mercy of their mother.

            “She’s going to be mad,” Johnny said even as he nearly sagged with relief as Sebastian tore the much hated list to shreds and tossed it in a trash can set up near the corn on the cob table.

            “I’ll handle it,” he said, not really sure that he’d survive the hell that his wife was going to put him through over this, but for his children, he’d endure it.

            “What should we buy then?” Sebastian wondered out loud as he gazed around the large store with anticipation.

            “Oh, I’m sure we’ll think of something,” Trevor drawled as his boys shared a look that only Bradfords could pull off.

To be continued……….

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