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What more was there to do other than sit in the car and listen to the radio. The key was in the ignition. The windshield had been cleaned at the service station.

Shoppers left the drug store clutching their purchases in brown paper bags with the drug store logo printed on the bags in red. Liquor or cigarettes, sundries, gardening equipment, the sale items, the prescriptions they had asked to be filled at the pharmacy, I could not be certain of what was in the bags unless they were filled to the top; then it was easy to look at the items and the face behind the bag and realize something about that person.

They did not hurry or loiter once outside. They were careful of the cars leaving the parking lot. They moved with an easy-going sense of purpose. A few of them waited for friends or relatives who were in the supermarket. A few waited in their cars. Some of them put on their sunglasses as they exited out of the motor-driven, self-opening doors.

Through the plate-glass windows of the imposing supermarket I could see the checkers at the registers. I could see the flashing light over the express line where one could pass through with nine items or less. I could see the people waiting in line to pay for their goods, and the aisles of shelves stocked with foodstuffs and household products behind them. I could see the long rows of florescent lights clinging to the ceiling; I could see the sale banners drifting above them all.

The sun blazed down on the parking lot. There were many cars of all makes and colors. The sun made them shine. It made the paint and the chrome sparkle. It made the legs of my jeans warm. It was a warm day.

I recognized the opening bars of a favorite song so I turned up the radio. I rolled down the window and searched in the glove compartment for my sunglasses. What a beautiful day it was. What a beautiful scene, this brightness glimmering in the parking lot before me. And the mountains were very pretty, in the near distance above the drug store and the supermarket. See how the pines have errected themselves on the grassy slopes. See the ranch and its fences.