There were no arrows on the ground

The arrows on the floor were gone today.

My son and I had a Mum’s-onvacation-and-he’s-not-workingand-his-brother-is-at-dad’s noonish-lunchy-brunch thing at Cowansville’s Ben & Florentine restaurant. We enjoyed fruit smoothies and dined at a restaurant (inside) together for the first time in a very long time.

We then popped by the pharmacy for a few things, including an aloe vera soothing gel for a sunburn that shouldn’t have happened in 2021 with so much sunscreen at home, and then along the same strip, back-tracked to Dollarama for a few things (a pot for a plant, mostly).

We walked in, sanitized our hands and grabbed a cart….

And the arrows were gone.

The big, red arrows.

They were about two feet long, pointing up and down the rows.

We’ve been following them since the stores re-opened.

Hang a left, go to the far aisle, kitchen supplies, bathroom products, cleaning items, ending with faux plants and flowers, then back down homewares – containers, dishes, tins, tablecloths, up the next aisle for outdoor things, decorative stuff for the garden, then down hats and more outdoor things, up jewellery, socks, toiletries, soaps, pet products along the back, down the food aisle, up crafts, school supplies, books, the beginning of the toy section, and then down the toy section, party supplies, gift cards.

Along the front – a fridge for cold beverages, a section for bread, chips, batteries, a wall of mints and candies, a tree of lollipops, along to the cash, with Plexiglas hanging between us and the cashiers. No arrows on the floor.

No arrows made of red tape. Their silhouettes were there – adhesive edging that stuck a little harder.

I wonder how long the edges will remain? Will they be put down again, filling in the spaces they left, new tape, new lanes? Will they simply fade with the frequent washings?

Will the section of masks go? I needed something from the second aisle. This had been a ‘down’ aisle. I walked up, remembering the way we used to shop a year and a half ago – our lists, walking here and there, backtracking, not thinking so much about how close we passed someone. I found the plant pot, and went down the next aisle to look for another thing.

I thought about how all along there were those who didn’t bother with the arrows. Boldly going wherever they wanted to – occasionally getting re-directed by store staff, or at least being the recipient of eye-rolls from them or shop patrons.

I wondered what things will be the past, and how soon? I’ve always been good at not saying ‘Are we there yet?’ just out of getting a job done properly, getting to a destination safely and without much turning around.

I still don’t feel the need to ask – and I don’t feel paranoid or stressed, I wear my mask without a fuss and can hardly feel it most of the time – although I realize that many are bothered by them, for various reasons, and will look forward to shedding them, with any luck, forever.

I let my mind wander, wondering about trips, and confined spaces, air travel, shared space, and common direction, respect….and wonder what’s to come.

With my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine set for this Thursday, I contemplate that raising a special needs child made me very resilient in terms of waiting for things, lowered my expectations, limited my movements and drastically increased my tolerance when waiting for things.

But, then again, anyone can appreciate breathing room.

So just as easily as travel up an aisle with a clear direction, I embrace the opportunity to navigate differently, and I don’t feel controlled, or like a sheep, or naïve. I feel that I tried to make very basic changes to my movements because there was a chance that it could help, and I have zero regrets.

While we wait and wonder what comes next, we explore newly reopened territory.

There were no arrows on the ground.