The Receipt

 I hope readers don't mind that many of my writing lately has been short stories and not poetry, but I haven't abandoned my poetry, I just have a few stories to tell on occasion.

You Can’t Make This Up

I went shopping in a Ross store at a local shopping center in Apex.  Since it is the holiday season, I wanted to purchase something to go outside my front door to make it more festive.  I settled on a couple of 6 ft garlands.  They were covered in fake snow and lots of colorful plastic ornaments.  Perfect, I thought, for my entrance.  Well, the fake snow was a nightmare.  It stuck to my clothing like glue and made a total mess of the back seat of my car.  I was determined though to try them around the front door.  After hanging them, going up and down the step ladder multiple times, I had fake snow all over the porch and myself!  I knew this had been a bad choice.  I should have learned my lesson from a few years ago when I purchased an indoor tree with fake snow.  Needless to say, it is no longer an indoor tree.  It sits under the porch at my son’s house, serving as an outdoor decoration and still it creates a snowy mess around it.  I decided I would return these garlands.  I began looking for the receipt the next morning.  I looked in my car.  I looked through my purse, repeatedly.  I checked the bag that contained another item purchased at the same time.  I even went through the kitchen garbage can. It had only been one day; how could I have lost it?  I gave up on looking and decided that I probably had dropped it in the parking lot since my hands were so full when I left the store.  After all, I did have the two price tags that were originally on the garlands, so at least I could get store credit.  Again, being covered in fake snow I proceeded to load my messy purchase into the back seat.  I drove over to the same store and parked my car in the parking lot.  Of course, I had no idea where I had parked the previous day.  I usually don’t remember when I come out of a store where my car is parked!  I got the garland out and headed to Ross’ entrance.  As I was crossing the street in front of the store, I saw a receipt on the ground.  I had already forgotten about my theory that I probably had dropped it.  When I reached down to pick up this receipt, it was damp and dirty, but after further inspection, I saw it was my receipt.  (You can’t even make this up.) Are you kidding me?  I thought to myself.  I was still in a state of shock when I walked into the store and approached the return counter.  The lady at the register probably thought I was cuckoo because I had to share with her the story of how I found the receipt.  What are the odds? I said in amazement.  I still can’t believe it.  It was a Christmas miracle of sorts, although the lady told me that the receipt was not really necessary since I had retained the price tags!  Good Grief!

Tammy Harvey

12/10/2022