7 min to close

7 min. to closing time. Olive decided she needed some decaf coffee. We rode our bikes to Freddy's grocery store on Hawthorne. I held her bike as she ran in. She found her coffee in under under a min. I was outside with four other folks who weren't customers. They were homeless and appeared mentally ill. I instantly wanted to help them. Then as I noticed their expressions I started to giggle at my own hubris. Who's to say I'm the sane one. I bet all of us were thinking "I'm the only one here who isn't stark raving mad." People kept rushing up saying "How long? 5 min? I only need a few things" then rushing in. Olive got in self check out but the person ahead of her started fighting with the employees. Every other stand had some kind of chaos going on. People tussling with their own families, arguing with others, posturing and complaining. Olive decided to run to a regular line. Outside a very intense looking man ran up on me and the cart jockeys saying "Tell me that door ain't locked I only need one thing!" I thought he was gonna start throwing haymakers. The employee showed him the open door and he rushed in with his "chewing concrete" expression. Inside Olive's lucks wasn't much better. The person in front of her couldn't get her payment together and was having the clerk run all over the store fetching things so she went back to self check out. I glanced in and noticed her running full boar. I wondered why she would need to be doing that. Across the street one of the homeless people had put her head in someone's shoulder. The person kept looking at me to help in some way. I was trying to help, just not him. She needed it so he can stand there a moment. Then suddenly like animals fleeing a wildfire all these people rushed out the exit. Tons of people in pajamas, agro-folks, dude who walks like Popeye, club people, punks. Then the guy from earlier popped out and i saw why he was so intense. The one thing he needed was a plunger. Now we all know why he was chewing concrete. He marched off into the night to deal with some kinna nightmare. 7 min. to close is a very wild, very entertaining nature documentary. I loved being in the middle of so many colorful dramas. Olive notsomuch. She eventually made it out looking exasperated. "Lets get out of here." I wanna do all our shopping at 7 min. to close. Those closing employees are absolute legends b.t.w. They really earned their pay.