A Norfolk Island Pine

For the first time in a couple of years, M and I will have a Christmas tree. For a long time we tree-sat a friend's artificial Christmas tree while he was working in the Middle East. When he returned from his extended work period abroad, we returned his tree in its box.

We talked about buying another tree. We didn't want a real tree that drops needles, dries out, becomes a fire hazard and has to be disposed of at the end of the season. We shopped around for the artificial kind only to find that we weren't prepared to pay over $200 for a bit of cheer that will last a month at the most, even if it comes around once a year. No, we'll wait for the after season sales we said. We did, only to find that in January we had lost our taste to buy a tree only to take it home and store it until the end of the year.

And so a couple of years went by with no tree in our home, until this Saturday night. Shopping at WalMart, the first thing I see as we walk in the door is a pint size pine in a pot. Perfect, it won't dry out and this tree doesn't look like it will drop needles. Its leaves are soft and feathery. And at $12.50 it is in our price range. I look at M, "Please, let's buy a Christmas tree." We choose our tree and into the cart our nearly waist high tree goes.

Not familiar with this particular store, we get lost up and down aisles looking for items: cleaning materials, packing tape, shoe polish, a heating pad for M's sore shoulder and bird seed. All our items finally tracked down and placed in the cart with our Christmas tree; M pulls me away from the book stand and says, "We should buy a card for Pete."

We follow the signs and find the cards. M takes the cart from me and leaves it tucked away behind a display in the middle aisle out of everyone's way. We look high and low, there just isn't a suitable greeting card for Pete. None of the blank cards will do. We head out to the middle aisle and our cart. M walks up a few aisles and starts to look lost.

"Did you forget where you parked it?" I ask.

"I left it about here," he says.

The only cart in the vicinity of here, unattended, is empty - tucked away, nice and empty. We walk the aisles quickly looking for someone who may have mistakenly made off with our cart and our Christmas tree. We don't find a case of mistaken identity. I feel frustration and tiredness fill me.

Well, there's nothing else to do. We have to start again. I head for another Christmas tree and M gets another cart. Now that we know where everything is, we delegate who is getting what. In less than ten minutes, everything is packed in the cart. Wow, that was quick. We head for the checkout counter. "Did another Christmas tree come through here?" I want to ask the person at the checkout. But she wouldn't get my tired humour.

Bizarre. What was that all about? But at least we still have a lovely Norfolk Island Pine for a Christmas tree this year. And, for all we know, it may be the one we originally chose. When I showed our replacement tree to M, he said, "That looks like our first tree." That's what I thought too.

Surely, WalMart staff isn't that efficient to unpack an unattended cart so quickly. Besides which, where did they put M's cap which he left in the cart? And was it just co-incidence that there was an empty cart where M left our cart? Bizarre. Bizarre.