Checkouts by Cynthia Rylant Her parents had mosed her to

‘or
Checkouts
by Cynthia Rylant
Her parents had mosed her to Cincinnati. to a large house with beveled glass
windows and sesetal porches and the history her mother liked to emphasize.
You II love the house. ihe~ said. You’ll be lonely at lirst, ihe~ admitted. hut
3011 re so nice ~ouIl make friends 1a~he felt like I~ ing on the floor h~e
holding on to their ankles and tellintz them she felt she was d ‘inc. She wanted to
perstia e them to al w her to linish growing up in the town ot her childhood.
They closed their mouths ti&ht and spoke From their chests and they said it’s
decided.
They nios ed her to Cincinnati, where for a no
she spent the majority of
every day in a room full of beveled glass window ookina thr u ‘h hotoora hs
ot
life she’d Ii’ ed and cit behind. It is difficult work .suffering. and hnallv
she didn’t ave t e ener” or it an ‘more, so she emerged from the beautiful
house and fell in love with a bag boy at the supermarket. Of course, this didn’t
happen all at once, just like that, but it happened exj~ily in that order.
She liked to crocery shop. because while doing S~1i~ could think and relax
and wander. Her parents wrote up the list and handed it to her. Oft she went
without complaint to do what they helieved was a great sacrifice of her time and
a si~n 1
e was actually a very nice girl. She had never told ihem how much
she loved grocery shopping, only that she “would” do it. She had a feeling that
emphasize call
persuade: con’ mncc.
.
emerge: come out.
wander: walk without direction.
.
ç
S
sharinidea.
suchLetstrong
rtantthey
facts
about
.zood
them im
believe
knew
her.herself with her parents was not a
Once inside the supermarket, her hands tight arotind the handle of the cart,
she would slip into a kind of reverie and head toward the vegetables. Like a Ti
betan monk in meditation, she calmed herselito a point of deep. deep happiness:
this feeling cam~The~ only in the supcrmarkct.~,—
Then one clay the bag boy dropped her jar of mayonnaise and that is how
fell in lose.
~snerv s— lirsI clay on the job—and along caine this fascinating girl.
standing in the checkout line. Her face was turned enough away that he could
take seseral full looks at her as he packed the bags flaIl of food and other prodL~3
~
na
placed ahuge oran~bQ,sxa,~rly~s e
at.That was enough to
ucts. She interested him because her hair was red and thick and in it he h d
dist
hit and when finally it was her groceries he was packing, she looked at
him and smiled and he could respond_only by busting herjar of mayon se on
~—
the thor. shards of “lass nd 0071 ng cream all around his feet.
Enctly at that moment she lovc≤Lhim. and if he’d known this he may no,~
have fallen into the de ression he fell?~Tfl~iN
into w ~ieh lasted the
rest of his shift. He
V3 ~
believed he must has-c looked the jackass in her e~es. and he envied the conli
deuce of everyone around him.
j~~te~ja~couu.thanee. Another chance to
he conlidcnt and say witty thintzs to her as he threw cans into her bags, pcrsuading her to allow him to e p her to her car so he might learn a little about herb>
check out the lloor of the car for the signs of hobbies or interests.
But he busted her jar of mayonnaise and nothing else worked out for the rest
of the day.
Strange.how attractive clumsiness can be. She left the supermarket with
s~j1LhaJ’~c~, br she los ed the way his long nersous fingers moved irom the
conveyer belt to the bags. how skillfully çuntil the mayonnaise t ey a pie e
up her items and placed them into her bags. She
oved the way the hair kept
lallin” into his e es as he leaned over to grab a box or a can. And the tattered
h
shoes he wore with no socks. And the left side of hisco1l~afl’ediin
instead tout.
The ba2 boy seemed a wonderful contrast to the perfectl beautiful house
he had been fon’eH tn Iccepi “sbez.ho e to the history of that ness house that
--
reverie: cia dream
____..~,
—
witty: clever: smart and funny.
-
—
contrast: opposite.
~he hated, to the loneliness she had become used to. and she couldn’t ‘~ aft to
comeback for more of his awkwardness and dishevelment.
incredibly, it \va~~ •another four weeks before they saw each other again.
Her visits to the supermarket never coincided with his schedule to hag. Each
time she went to the store, her eyes scanned the checkouts at once. her heart
in her mouth. And each hour he worked, the bag boy kept one eye on the dooi.
watching br the red-haired girl ‘with the big orange how.
Yet for all the disappointment of these weeks, there was ecstasy. The hope
you may see again some face which has meant something to you is reason
enough to be alive. The anticipation of meeting the bag boy eased the girl’s
painful transition into her new and jarring life in Cincinnati. It provided for
her something stable amont! all that was new and unfamiliar, and she spent
less time on thoughts of what she had left behind as she concentrated on ~s hat
mieht lie ahead, And for the boy, the long and often tedious hours at the super
market.,. these hours became possibilities of mystery and romance br him as
he watched the electric doors for the girl in the orange bow.
And n hen the~ binallv did meet ~ again, neither gave a sign to the other
that he. or she, had been the object of obsessive thought for weeks. She spotted
him as soon as she came into the store, btit she kept her eyes directly in front
of her as she pulled out a cart and pushed it toward the vegetables. And he,
too, knew the instant she came through the door—though the orange bow was
gone. replaced b a small hut bright yellow (lower instead —and he ne’ er once
turned his head to look directly at her but watched her from the corner of his
vision as he tried to swallow back the fear in his throat.
It is odd how we sometimes deny ourselves the very pleasure we have
been waiting for and which is (inally within our reach. For some inexplicable
reason, the girl did not bring her cart up to the bag boy’s check out when her
shopping was clone. And the bag boy let her leave the store pretending not to
notice her.
This is often the way of children. ‘when they truly want a thing. to pretend
that they don’t. And then they grow angry when no one tries harder to give
them this thing the~ rcjected. and they soon (md themselves angry simpls
because they cannot say “yes” when they mean “yes.” Humans are sery corn
p1 icated. (And perhaps eats, who have been known to react in the same way.
though the resulting anger can only be guessed at.)
The girl hated herself for not checking out at the boy’s line and the bow
hated himself for not catching her eye and saying hello, and they most cer
tainly hated each other without having eser exchanged even two minutes of
conversation.
Eventually—in fact. within the week an intelligent boy who li~ed very
near her beautiful house asked the izirl to a movie and she ga~e up liking the
bag boy at the supermarket. And the hag boy himself grew so bored with his
job that he searched for a better one and ended up working in a bookstore
where many fascinating girls walked around like honeybees about a hive.
Some months later the bag boy and the girl ~s ith the orange bow crossed
paths again, standing in line with their dates at a movie theater, and, glancing
toward the other, each smiled a bit, then looked away, as strangers on public
buses olten do, when one is moving off the bus and the other is moving on.
rlislievelrnent: mess~ look.
coincide: match
I,
‘~k
ecstasy: incredible joy.
anticipation: excitement or a fuiurc es em.
hon ng.
howe where hees I ivc.
C.
Characterization
1
This chart shows five ways in which we learn about the main character. Next to each of
the five ways in which character is revealed, give a specific example to illustrate. In the
third column, explain what you learned about the character from this example.
-
-
-
Ways character is
revealed
Charader’s
Character’s
appearance
Character’s
private thoughts
How other
characters feel
about the
character and
react to him/her
Character’s
actions
-
—
-
—-—--—---——--
Example
Whatyoulearned-about--the character from this
example
I
Characterization
C.
This chart shows five ways in which we earn about the main character. Next to each of
the five ways in which character is revealed, give a specific example to illustrate. In the
third column, explain what you earned about the character from this example.
Ways character ~54---revealed
~ers
——
Example
What you learned_about
the character from this
example
N o~L
Characters
appearance
(
Character’s
private thoughts
How other
characters feel
about the
character and
react to him/her
Character’s
actions
I.