2.2. MRS. PALOMAR DOES THE SHOPPING
2.2.2. Ruby Red
Mrs. Palomar likes to shop for fruit. It is her favorite part of a trip to the grocery store. She likes the endless aisles of pyramids of spheres and other pleasing shapes, each individual piece of fruit so geometrically sound, contributing simultaneously to the smooth, angular sculpture of the display. The colors of the fruit are bright and surprising, like those of the carousel horses she loves. They are mostly the first few colors of the rainbow-reds, oranges, yellows, simultaneously tart and sweet-surrounded by the rich, organic green of the vegetable section, with the occasional bloody raspberry crimson or deep blueberry purple. These darker colors please her also, their solemnity unique among the showtune glitz of the citrus, the apples, the bananas. Strawberries, too-Mrs. Palomar secretly believes that the strawberries are responsible for most of the fruit section's wanton merriment, its childlike eagerness and sense of abandon. This latter aspect is Mrs. Palomar's most cherished perception of the fruit section. She knows that no one but herself has detected the playfulness inherent in this cool, bright corner of produce.
Mrs. Palomar is particularly fond of the grapefruits, their large, spherical bodies and smooth yellow skin. What pleases her most about them is the knowledge that not only are they externally adorned with a cheerful yellow, but that their inner selves, the guts and seeds of the fruit, are ruby red, a color that contrasts with their skin and yet maintains the sense of excitement and childishness conveyed by the outer appearance of the grapefruit. Even more titillating is the notion that this inner treasure is not, in the confines of the supermarket, available to Mrs. Palomar--she must examine the external facade of the fruit, only imagining what a cleave with her butcher's knife might reveal. The grapefruits appear still and dead but in fact, thinks Mrs. Palomar, they are unspeakably alive with the spirit of the unknown, the hidden vitality that makes the grapefruit the king of the citrus section.
Mrs. Palomar is contemplating this thrilling uncertainty next to the tower of grapefruits, which dominates the citrus section in both sheer size and aesthetic quality, when she is approached by a quiet man in a dark coat. He has been standing surreptitiously among the green vegetables, fingering a cauliflower, watching Mrs. Palomar's eyes widen and her brow form beads of sweat upon the mysterious contemplation of the grapefruits. When she notices him next to her she jumps, dropping a grapefruit and disturbing the tower slightly. Dark coat steadies the rumbling grapefruits, narrowly escaping calamity. The thought of the cleanly stacked pyramid of fruits toppling to the cold linoleum floor and dispersing throughout the produce section causes both Mrs. Palomar and the strange man to shudder. Mrs. Palomar notices this congruence of bodily events and eyes the dark coat indirectly.
Mrs. Palomar's thoughts begin to wander as she and the man stand side by side, feeling the grapefruits for softness, weight. She says to herself, "What if this stranger is the Other for whom I have been searching? What if he, too, knows the depths of joy and excitement, the heights of childlike pleasure, that lurk within these layers and layers of sweet and colorful flesh? He longs for the elegant symmetry of the grapefruit tower. He knows the thrill of ruby redness that throbs beneath its surface, an entire world under its skin, like the ant colony hiding beneath the dirt. What if--" The man interrupts Mrs. Palomar's seething contemplation, giving her a small wave and a "Good day now." She watches as he rounds the corner of aisle 1 with his cart, bag of eleven grapefruits tucked neatly in it. Mrs. Palomar watches him disappear as the grapefruits begin to roll one by one to the ground around her feet.