The Christmastime Pharmacy

I was the eleventh person in line at the supermarket pharmacy.??

As I was taking my place in the line, I searched the faces of the people ahead of me as a means of gauging how long they’d already been there.? Their expressions weren’t encouraging.? And the faces of the people toward the back of the line near to me were already shading toward despair.

It was Christmastime, or more accurately the week before--a time of warmth and cheer in theory…but also just as likely a time of snow and rain, of slush and slow traffic, and of holiday sales and stores clogged with throngs of holiday shoppers.? A time of colds, and the flu.? The holiday decorations and tinsel festooned around the walls and counters of the supermarket pharmacy seemed forlorn and out of place in the clinical glare of the store’s fluorescent lighting.

Over to the right of the pharmacy counter was a small consultation area with cushioned chairs--a place where a patient can consult with some small measure of privacy with the pharmacist.? A weary-looking young man was seated in the consultation area on one of the comfortable chairs.? Beside him was a little girl who looked no older than two.??

The little girl seemed to be looking everywhere all at once, as children often do when they’re curious or excited--and this child seemed to be both.? Protected against the winter cold in her pink hooded winter coat and rubber snow boots, she was plainly enjoying the experience outside her home.? To the little girl, everywhere she looked in the store was a wonderland of new adventures.??

The pharmacy line was advancing slowly.? After a few minutes, I moved from the eleventh-place position in the line to the tenth, and then a little while later from the tenth to the ninth.? Newcomers took their places behind me, glancing furtively, apprehensively, toward the pharmacy counter.? Nobody in the line was looking at anyone else--caught in a vulnerable position and avoiding casual glances, each of us was trying to shroud our own feelings.? All of us were thinking a version the same thought:? Can’t the pharmacist please work any faster?

And then, in the consultation area, the little girl worked her way onto her dad’s lap and pulled herself up to whisper something into his ear.? The young father listened to his daughter’s hushed words and glanced over at the group of miserable people waiting in line at the pharmacy. ? He offered his child a wan smile, and nodded.

And the little girl, overflowing with enthusiasm, good spirits, generosity, and a big, big helping of Christmas Spirit, jumped down off her father’s lap and began to fish around in a shopping bag at his feet.? Shortly, her hands emerged from the plastic bag holding a packet containing thirty or so fruit-flavored candies, each wrapped in gaily-colored wax paper.? She held the packet up to her dad, and he tore off the top and gave the bag back to the child.

The little girl took the packet of candy to the first person in the pharmacy line and held it out.? It took a moment for the woman in line to understand, but after a moment she held out her hand for the child to present her with a piece of candy.? The child looked up at the woman and smiled.? The woman smiled down at the little girl and said, “Thank you.”? She unwrapped the candy, popped it into her mouth, and smiled again in appreciation.

The child moved to the next person in line, a sour-faced man of about seventy, and repeated the gesture.? The old man haltingly held out his hand to accept the candy and placed it into his mouth.? Tenuously, as if it had been years since he’d experienced anything pleasurable, the man smiled awkwardly down at the little girl and quietly thanked her.? The atmosphere in the line began to improve by the moment.

Children seem to possess a certain kind of magic, and they’re generous about sharing it with others:? To a child, every day is a new and vastly exciting experience.? While the people in the pharmacy line were filled with a dread of nothing more than tedium, inconvenience, and wasted time, the little girl was delighted to be experiencing an adventure outside her home.? As far as the child was concerned, the Christmas season was a time for sharing.? And in the store’s pharmacy, the girl had discovered people in far greater need of her gifts than she could ever be.?

The little girl worked her way back through the line and presented every tired and weary person there with a piece of her fruit candy.? By the time the packet was empty, the toxic atmosphere in the pharmacy line had lifted--vanished, and disappeared.? People were smiling at each other, and talking among themselves.? Sallow cheeks became flushed, tired eyes brightened, and there was suddenly a genuine warmth in the air.????

It wasn’t just candy the child had shared with us, of course.? For a brief moment in time, the little girl had invited us into her world and shared with us her perspective.? The child had reminded us what it feels like to look at the world through young eyes, to see the world as a place full of mystery and excitement and wonder--a reminder of a time when a little piece of fruit-flavored candy can become for a delightful moment the center of a universe filled with magic and delight.

But in a larger sense, the little girl had given to each one of us a little piece of the Christmas Spirit which glowed in her heart, as shiny and exciting as a brightly-wrapped gift on Christmas morning, as pure and sanctifying as a eucharist wafer during a Sunday morning service.? When the child placed into my hand an orange-flavored candy drop and offered me a smile, I felt somehow blessed.? I smiled back at the little girl and murmured, “Merry Christmas, sweetie.”

And even years and years after that afternoon in the supermarket pharmacy, the little girl with her sack of candy and abundance of holiday spirit is among my very favorite Christmastime memories.? At an age when I don’t always remember what I ate for lunch the afternoon before and sometimes even forget the color of my tie, I can still recall the simple kindness of that child long ago, and her gift of warmth on one cold and miserable day.

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