I almost had a head on collision on the paper product aisle in the grocery store with a cart pushed by a grandmother with her grandson inside surrounded by a few items.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said.
She nodded, and I moved on while she tried to keep her monkey grandson with a mullet haircut from climbing out of the cart.
“I want that,” he whined and pointed.
She softly said, “No” and shook her head.
“I’m going to tell my mommy,” he yelled.
I was out of eavesdropping range after that, but I figured the boy’s mommy to be married to the lady’s son, probably against the grandmother’s wishes. I wondered what kind of mother she was. Mine would have slapped me across the face if I acted like that in public.
I met the grandmother again near the snacks. Her grandson was reaching for Little Debbie’s while the grandmother eyed sugar free cookies. The grandmother pushed the cart, he grabbed the side with one hand but wasn’t steady enough, somehow flipped over the front, still gripping the metal of the cart. He dangled by one arm, just like kids did on monkey bars in elementary school when a teacher had to catch them because they were too scared to let go and fall.
The *scene was like watching an accident in slow motion, one where I couldn’t say anything or spring to action quick enough to help her save him. He never hit the floor like I guessed, but was scared, cried, and hyperventilated.
“I want my mommy,” he whined.
As I passed their cart, I told her, “I think he’ll be okay,” but her nervous eyes revealed what I suspected was her real fear—the mommy.
The scene unfolded in my imagination: the mother arrived at the grandmother’s cottage downtown, and monkey boy meets her at the door conjuring his earlier drama and near-death experience. All he wanted was a Little Debbie, but his grandmother wanted to get the cookies that gave him diarrhea. The mother cradles her son and wants to beat the grandmother with a wire hanger. She left in a huff, monkey boy in tow, and told her husband that his mother is a horrible sitter, and they need to think about a nursing home.
Niles Reddick is author of a novel, four short fiction collections, and two novellas. His work has appeared in over five hundred publications including The Saturday Evening Post (which ranked him among the Top Ten Most Popular New Fiction of 2019), Cheap Pop, Flash Fiction Magazine, Citron Review, Midway Journal, Hong Kong Review, and Vestal Review. He is a ten-time Pushcart nominee, a three-time Best of the Net nominee, and a three-time Best Micro nominee.
Modern Flash Fiction 