Together they watched and their collective hands trembled as they heard. This could very well possibly be the end of the world, they thought as they clutched each other's hands. "To repeat," the staunch man with the perfectly starched suit said in a grave voice, There is snow moving into the area. Little accumulation is expected."
"Did you hear that??" A hysterical wife screeches as she clutches her loving husband's hands for support. "SNOW!! DOWN HERE??? What shall we do?"
"I don't know" Her husband replies. He tries to be a bit calmer as he is the man of the house but finds his own hands trembling along with hers. "This is just terrible!! There is no telling what is to become of this situation." He tries to keep his voice steady but it is shaky with fear.
His wife takes a deep breath to exhale some of the hysterical fear building up inside of her. "Well, the first thing I propose we do is go to the grocery store. That way we will not risk starving to death when we are snowed in until the next millennia"
"Right," the loving husband agreed as he took his own calming measures, "We will go to the store so that we will be sufficiently prepared for what ever may happen." Reluctantly he released her still trembling hands so that he might collect their coats and start the car.
The effect of the first announcement began to wear off as they made their way to the grocery store. The wife had even begun to sing a little with the radio that they had on to possibly rid their thoughts of the coming event. The last song of the set was one by Nirvana which made them feel much better because Nirvana was their favorite group. "I just love that song. Such a tragedy about the lead singer," the loving husband said as the commercials were running.
"There's nothing like a good Nirvana song to calm the mind," the wife agreed. They rode in silence for a while until they pulled up to the stop light.
As they waited out the red light the announcers voice flooded their car with grave news that struck fear in to the very souls of the couple. "We have a report of snow. A snow flake has been spotted a few miles north of this location. Stay tuned for updates on the situation. Now here's a song by Pearl Jam."
Even a song by their second favorite band did nothing to ease their minds. "Oh this is horrible!! What if we don't' make it back in time!" the wife yelled in hysterics.
"WE will. I promise," the loving husband said trying to calm his wife as pushed the accelerator a bit further to the floor.
A few minutes later they were at the local grocery store. To their utter amazement there were very few parking spaces to be found. With some expert maneuvering around a few cars, the loving husband managed to acquire a parking space relatively close to the doors. They walked hand and hand into the lobby and collected one of the few remaining baskets. Feeling confident as he had just expertly maneuvered around three cars and managed to park while coming the wrong way, the loving husband took control of the basket. "WE will need several loaves of bread and peanut butter and jelly. That is something we can have if the power goes out for a week," he said shuddering at the very thought.
"Potted meat and tuna would be an excellent choice also. Oh and batteries. Must not for get those."
"Good thinking, dear," The loving husband said as they threw stuff in their basket. They traversed the whole of the store expertly dodging other shoppers who were loading up their baskets. When they made it to the bottled water isle there was very few left. The loving husband placed five in the basket thinking it would be sufficient.
The ever thinking, ever prepared wife just did not think that five gallons of bottled water would be sufficient to last though out the coming disaster. "I think we will required at least three more," She said as she placed said water in to the basket. "That will be sufficient to last us though out the duration. And I think we need to get a couple cases of toilet paper, dear. That would be bad if we ran out of that."
"Yes. it would be," He agreed putting the sacred toilet paper on the bottom of the cart. "I believe we are adequately prepared for the disaster now," he said slowly awaiting reaction from his wife.
"What ever happens we are well stocked in staples and we have each other." She said as a tear fell slowly to the floor.
They walked in silence to the front of the store as they prepared to check out. They were consumed in their own thoughts of how horrible this disaster was going to be. They did not have very far to go to the check out lines. People were strung out to the center of the isles. In the shortest line they were the eighth in line to be checked out. They waited patiently as they made their way at a crawling pace to the check out girl. They were much relieved when they finally did. There was a chance that they may make it home before disaster stuck.
"How are you today?" The worn out check out girl greeted as she reached her hand in to their basket and began to scan groceries at top speed.
"Fine," The loving husband answered. "Might you have a pen I could borrow" he asked.
She was prepared to break out the flame thrower if he did not return the sacred writing utensil. She glanced to her left and was utterly annoyed that once again she would be bagging a huge order.
"I wander why it's so busy?" The wife asked, totally clueless to reality.
"That is a good question," The loving husband replied obviously trapped in her delusion.
The check out girl shot them a look. She was obviously the only one who had a logical grasp of reality. She bit back many of the sarcastic remarks that came to mind so she would not be in fear of losing her job. "Ok your total comes to $182.53." She told them in a dead pan voice as she walked over to begin sacking the groceries. She was just happy that they were not telling her the "correct way to bag".
"That is too much" the loving husband mumbled shaking his head as he filled out his check. "But at least we are prepared for the disaster." He said handing her the check. He was confused by the enigmatic smile the girl wore. "Are you not prepared for the coming disaster?" He inquired in a grave voice.
"um, Elvis will save me." She said in response. Let the hysterical one's chew on that for a while. She handed them their lengthy receipt. "Thank you and you have a nice day." She said as she turned to the next hysterical people.
The couple walked outside to their car. There was no sign of a flake in the air so they breathed with relief. They had made it. They were prepared for the coming disaster.