Oranges

I enjoy eating an orange for breakfast. One morning I realized I had eaten the last of my oranges. I couldn’t drive to the store to buy more because my car was in the shop. The mechanic had told me it would take at least three days to get the parts and fix the problem.

I suppose I could have breakfast without eating an orange, but this didn’t appeal to me. I decided to walk to the store, a bit more than two miles from my house, and buy oranges.

I have a habit when I’m walking of telling myself stories. As I walked to the store, I didn’t pay attention to where I was walking given that I regularly drive the route. I found myself walking up a somewhat steep hill and noticed I’d come to a dead end. Puzzled, I realized when I drove, I never drove up a hill, much less to a dead end.

I walked down the hill to the main road and saw I’d turned in to the wrong road, which was just a little way from the road I wanted. Sighing at my lack of attention, I walked on the correct road to the store. Not thinking about weight, I bought a four pound bag of oranges and a few other items I needed and put them in my backpack.

Two plus miles isn’t normally a long distance for me, but I soon began to feel the weight and shifted it to relieve the stress on my shoulders. The walk back felt longer and harder than the way to the store.

When I got home, a friend called. I told her about wanting oranges and walking on the wrong road because I’d been daydreaming. She laughed and said, “You’re 88 years old and you walked on a wrong road, more than four miles, to buy oranges? Why didn’t you ask me to pick some up for you?” 

“I didn’t think to ask,” I told her.

What happened to you the last time you were on autopilot and didn’t pay attention?

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July 2025 stories