ANGRY YOUNG WORLD

Were We Always Mad As Hell?

Enraged at Walgreens

The world has gone mad. That, or it was already pissed off and awaiting a catalyst. Life these days feels like someone walked into the tavern with a loaded gun. Or a Walgreens with a prescription they needed to fill.

I went to Walgreens to get my COVID shot yesterday. The line looked like Beyoncé was inside. Everyone who showed up, surveyed the line and said, “Is this the actual line?”

I wish I could have told them about the non-actual line, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.

Some people tried to skip the line and go to the front window, but we growled at them and they took their place at the back.

We were all protective of our blue dots — the six-foot-apart blue circles where we were designated to stand on and wait our turn. Due to the crowds, there were more people than blue circles. Tempers were simmering as we all guarded our places.

The lines were not only for people who needed COVID shots, but people getting prescriptions filled, people having difficulty with their orders, people at the wrong pharmacy, and people who needed translators.

Half the people in line wore masks. Half did not. The people who wore masks stood in more turtle-esque, self-protective postures. The people not wearing masks spit, coughed and expelled germs. It was a melting pot on a bonfire of impatience.

It took me 59 minutes to get to the pharmacy window. You can’t plan for a quick line at the Walgreens pharmacy. It’s not like you can anticipate rush hour or construction. There’s no Waze at the Walgreens line. There is always an accident or construction.

When I got to my window, the young pharmacist said I was not in the system. I held out my phone and showed her my appointment confirmation and my appointment reminder email. I was well-armed and abundantly documented. She made a teenage girl’s exasperated face and left for ten minutes.

While I waited, a woman started to scream in line behind me. It was so loud, I wondered if someone was going to pull out a weapon.

‘You want to be part of my phone call? Did I invite you to be a part of my phone call?’ she yelled.

My son whispered to me that the man asked her to speak more quietly.

The man looked scared. He was big, but soft. He was wearing like four masks and there was something fragile about him.

She was yelling Nobody told you you needed to stay in this line. This is because I am Black, right?

Anyone who was planning on getting involved before wasn’t getting involved now. We were on eggshells and the people who were close enough to hear, held their breath.

The woman yelling suggested she and the man take it outside. I hoped they would. I didn’t crave this kind of excitement.

The man looked down. Other people in the line were craning their heads now, gauging whether this was something to worry about.

At some point, the yelling woman went back to her phone call. She was relaying the drama to whomever she was speaking to. She was young, maybe 17. I remembered being that age. Did I yell at strangers? I don’t remember. Did I think I was right? Usually.

I started to tell my son about the movie, Twelve Angry Men — a courtroom drama where a room of jurors becomes enraged while they decide a young man’s fate. The conflict explodes in the sequestered jury room.

Sounds boring, he said.

It wasn’t, I said.

Then you’re doing a bad job explaining it, he laughed.

This is what the world feels like to me now — like we’re all in a sequestered jury room, deciding the fate of the world. It’s uncomfortable. Most of us are not good at being uncomfortable.

You okay? I asked my son.

Are you kidding? he asked. People fight in middle school every day. Don’t you remember middle school, mom? Someone always getting punched.

It’s different with adults, I said.

Why? he asked.

I don’t know, I said. I think because we learn to keep it inside and when someone lets it out, it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

When we got home, I put SAFE FROM WALGREENS PHARMACY on my Facebook status. 20 likes, 32 loves, and 3 laughs so far.

There should be a bubble bath emoji option. That’s when you go home and get in the bath because you need a redo because you’re big and fragile and you got in the wrong line.

Wouldn’t you rather be thinking? Follow Amy Sea and Contemplate