There It Was

Janet picked up her steps walking along the busy sidewalk to the dress shop. She had been waiting a month to buy a yellow hat with a green ribbon displayed in the dress shop window. Every time she passed the dress shop Janet made a mental note to check back in a day or two to see if the hat was still there. Her stomach was in her throat as she hurried along. Five days ago the hat was removed from the display window and Janet had checked with the sales personnel. The two females who ran the dress shop explained that the hat had not sold, so they removed it from the display and stored it in the back room. Janet had asked the two females to hold the yellow hat for her until the end of the week. They promised not to put it on their “SALE” rack but refused to retain the hat against other customers. Janet worried as she walked. If the yellow hat with the green ribbon had been sold to someone else, her new Spring green skirt and blouse ensemble would not be complete.

Arriving at the dress shop, Janet inhaled deeply and pulled open the dress shop's street-side door. Only one of the two female proprietors stood at the dress shop sales counter. “Hi! I’m here to pick up the hat I asked about a few days ago,” Janet said politely.“Oh!” the female proprietor behind the sales counter responded. “Just let me go check on it.”

“I’ll wait,” stated Janet.

“It won’t take long,” promised the proprietor. Janet put her pocketbook on the sales counter and shifted her feet. She had waited so long for this hat that she could feel her heart pounding in her ears. Five minutes later the female proprietor returned empty-handed. “I’m sorry,” the proprietor apologized. “The hat is not in the store room.” Janet’s mouth dropped open.

“The yellow hat with the green ribbon is not there?” Janet was incredulous. “I asked you to hold it for me five days ago!”

“I think we promised to not put it on “SALE”,” the female proprietor stated. “Someone else also needed that particular hat. We have a few others in nice Spring colors along the back wall.”

“Do you have another yellow hat with green?” demanded Janet.

“No. I am certain each hat is different. You can look at the others without fear of finding the same hat anywhere else,” the proprietor pronounced.

“Never mind, I thought we had an agreement,” Janet said. Turning and heading out the shop’s front door, Janet held her head high. She was not going to let the shop proprietor have satisfaction. Once on the sidewalk, Janet stopped by the shop window, and her shoulders sagged. The idea of buying another new Spring outfit did not lift her spirits. Janet walked off to the left and down the street.

As she walked, Janet eyed the women and men around her. She noticed various modes of dress- pantsuits, jeans, skirts, and jackets. Up ahead of her, on the street corner, stood a woman in a pale pink blouse and blue jeans. There it was. The yellow hat with a green ribbon rested on the woman’s head. “Hey! Hey!” Janet shouted and waived. Picking up her steps, Janet headed toward the street corner. The traffic light changed and the woman in the yellow hat crossed the road. When Janet reached the street corner, she could not see the woman who seemed to have been swallowed up by people swarming the opposite street corner.

“Crap!” yelled Janet. A man standing beside her on the street corner moved away with a strange glance in her direction. Janet decided to walk back to the dress shop. She had walked an entire city block and had paid little attention to her surroundings. On the way back to the dress shop Janet noticed the street was lined with apartment buildings. Some of the apartments displayed balconies and open windows. Oblivious to her footsteps, Janet stepped into a puddle on the sidewalk and immediately stopped walking. She stared down at the puddle. Then Janet looked up at the apartments above her. There it was. The yellow hat with a green ribbon sat in a chair on one of the apartment balconies. Janet felt a scream building in her throat. She removed her foot from the puddle and continued toward the dress shop.

When Janet arrived at the dress shop she yanked the front door open and walked in with a scowl. “Excuse me!” Janet demanded.

The female proprietor turned from another customer toward Janet. She eyed Janet up and down. “I’ll be with you in a moment,” the proprietor said curtly. Janet crossed her arms. The female proprietor finished talking to the other customer and approached Janet.

“I thought you said no two of your hats were alike!” accused Janet.

“Yes, I said that and that is the truth,” said the proprietor.

“Bull! I just saw two yellow hats with green ribbons like the one I had asked you to hold for me. You said the hat had been claimed by someone else. Why did I find two of them?” Janet cried.

The female proprietor spread her hands in the air. “I certainly don’t know what you are talking about,” denied the proprietor. “We only receive one of each kind of hat we sell every season.”

“Then tell me where else to find my hat!” demanded Janet.

“Not only am I certain we receive specialized merchandise, but I cannot comment on my competitors in the area,” the female proprietor responded.

“Okaaaayy…,” said Janet. “Can you order me a yellow hat with a green ribbon?”

“As I said,” huffed the proprietor, “none of our hats are alike. We do not special order copies!” Janet’s lips tightened and her face flushed. “I will be happy to sell you any of the hats we have on the back wall,” the proprietor finished.

“Never mind,” Janet responded through gritted teeth. “I will be happy to find another store with the hat I want.” Janet turned and walked out of the dress shop's front door with her fists clenched.

Once further along the sidewalk, Janet’s temper cooled and she hailed a taxicab. When the taxicab pulled to the curbside Janet opened the back door and climbed inside. Pulling the taxicab door closed behind her, Janet immediately wrinkled her nose at the smell of warm vinyl. The taxicab slowly inched away from the curb and through the heavy afternoon traffic. Janet’s stomach growled. Within thirty minutes the taxicab had made significant progress and Janet was halfway home. She decided to stop and pick up lunch a block and a half away from home. “You can drop me here,” Janet told the taxicab driver as her favorite deli, Herman’s Choices, appeared on the left side of the street. The taxicab pulled over and Janet paid the taxicab driver without tipping. She flounced out the taxicab’s back door, pushing it closed behind her.

Janet walked up to the window menu displayed by Herman’s Choices and scanned the sandwich and salad combinations listed. As she stood there, Janet felt someone jostle her from behind. “Excuse me,” said Janet. Janet turned her head and there it was. A teenager standing behind Janet was holding a yellow hat with a green ribbon in her hands. “Hey!” Janet shouted as the teenager stuck out her tongue and walked off. “Where did you get that hat?” Janet yelled at the teenager’s receding backside. “Come back here!” Engulfed by frustration, Janet decided not to eat and to walk the block and a half home.

On her way back home, Janet passed two homeless vagrants sitting in the mouth of an alleyway. They had a tin pot for coins and a stray dollar or two from sympathetic people. Janet walked straight by them without stopping. A man with a small dog on a leash hustled past her on the sidewalk and Janet sighed. “At least I haven’t seen another hat,” mumbled Janet.

The rest of the walk home was uneventful. Janet arrived at her townhome door and fished in her pocketbook for her front door keys. She rummaged through odd paper pieces, a worn wallet, a small bottle of hand sanitizer, and several lipstick tubes. It seemed her keys were missing. “Great!” Janet yelled and pulled her cell phone out of her pants pocket. Janet texted her husband that she was locked out of the house. She sat on the front steps with her cell phone beside her to wait for her husband’s response. Retracing her steps mentally, Janet wondered if she had left the townhome keys at the dress shop. This thought dredged up images of a yellow hat with a green ribbon dancing out of reach. Janet sighed.

After fifteen or twenty minutes had passed, Janet’s cell phone beeped. She checked her text messages and saw that her husband had agreed to come home immediately to let her in. Janet put the cell phone into her pants pocket. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the stoop. The time passed slowly and Janet became uncomfortable with the waiting. She pushed herself up and paced on the sidewalk. When her husband’s car pulled in Janet jumped in the air and leaped toward him as he exited through the driver’s side car door. “Hi honey!” said Janet’s husband. “I hope you didn’t have to wait too long. Where did you leave your keys?”

“I don’t know,” responded Janet. “Today has been a long, disappointing journey and I want to go inside and forget my morning.”

“Sure!” said Janet’s husband. He walked up the steps to the townhome's front door, pulled out his keys, and unlocked the door. Janet rushed inside. “Hey! I almost forgot. I have something else as well,” Janet’s husband yelled after her. He turned, jogged down the front steps, walked easily to the car, and opened the passenger back car door. Bending down he pulled a box from the floorboard. He shut the car door, ran up the townhome steps, and walked through the front door. Janet was busying herself in the front hall mirror. “Here,” said Janet’s husband as he held out the box. “I picked this up the other day.”

Janet took the box from her husband with raised eyebrows. Impulsive gifts were not her husband's usual style. She smiled and removed the string around the box. Then she lifted the lid. Janet’s eyes widened and she felt faint. There it was in the box- a yellow hat with a green ribbon.