Member-only story
God from the DVD Machine
Yearnings for ancient magic, and an unfulfilled destiny
There was this one time at the supermarket when I couldn’t find the cocoa. I looked up and down, up and down the aisles. I’m not inclined to be asking for help. A young woman passed by. We exchanged smiles. I kept looking up and down, kept passing by this woman.
Eventually, I gave up looking for cocoa, and moved on to butter. I saw the young woman there too, going back and forth, dropping items into her trolley, parked beside mine. I saw her drop something into my own trolley. I was about to call out, tell her she had the wrong trolley, but then I saw. It was cocoa.
There are unreasonable moments that feel like there is a god from the machine. They are small moments, not earth quaking, but deus ex machina nonetheless. It’s something akin to magic. Sometimes life is like that. It gives us what we need.
The other day I needed thongs. The ones that go on your feet. Flip flops, you might call them. Well, I was heading barefoot to the beach for the day. I intended to buy some thongs before we left town, but I forgot. That’s ok, I told my sister on the way, when we get to the coast, I will buy some there. But I forgot. And we pulled up at the beach and I stepped on a prickle and was reminded I needed thongs. Well here are some, my sister…
