just a NY conversation

I'm at Wholefoods, the supermarket. I'm facing the crackers shelf. Not sure if those Carr's 100% whole grain are the same I had once at Paloma's and were really good. Man next to me is also browsing the crackers shelf, as undecided as I am. Man gets a phone-call, exchanges a few words. I notice some impatience in his voice. Then informs the caller that he's about to go to the check-out. Hangs up and comments to person behind us:

"She's such a freak!"

"Who?"

"Sandy. What do you mean who? Who else?"

"I thought you liked her."

"I do, she's nice. But she's crazy."

"Well, isn't that a good thing?"

... I turned around to move to another shelf and that's when I saw who the man was talking to. I realized the dialogue was happening with his daughter, a 10 or 12 year-old. And I was so fascinated that I didn't pay attention to the rest of the conversation. Kids in NY are terribly mature. The conversations I hear between parents and kids in the elevator or, in this case, in the supermarket, always amaze me. Adults treating kids as adults. Kids in NY are in fact little adults, full of opinions about different topics, full of responsibilities in the competitive world that engulfs them the minute they are born, fencing for themselves in so many different ways.

Going back to the conversation at the supermarket, my theory is that Sandy was the new girlfriend. Divorced parents, kid spends weekends with father, father obviously keeps kid informed about his string of relationships and they probably analyze the ins and outs of the relationships together, there's a little bit of Woody Allen in every new yorker.

I didn't buy the crackers after all. Going to the supermarket with a ever so slightly hangover was not the best of ideas.