The automatic sliding doors were stuck in the open position and the flow of the people going in and out of the store seemed perpetual as Stan waited politely to slip inside. After waiting a few moments, he realized that most shoppers had long since discarded their manners as they made for the rapidly vanishing food supplies.

The large grocery store was dimly lit, as the juice dwindled and the battery-powered emergency lights dotting the walls. This store, like most modern grocery stores, drug stores, and department, had been built largely without windows to help prevent burglaries. It depended almost entirely on artificial interior lighting to brighten it’s aisles. Without electricity, the store became a huge, dark cave, with only the emergency spots providing any light at all.

Some people lit their way with flashlights as they attempted to find food, but most simply stumbled along in the dark, bumping from one person to the next, like a bizarre human pinball game. Several people tussled in the aisles, over claims of foodstuffs. A few actually engaged in fistfights, throwing punches wildly, flailing at each other in the dim light.  Civilization was deteriorating right between the canned goods and the macaroni and cheese. The store could not stay open much longer, but that mattered little; the food items most people were scouring the shelves for were all gone anyhow. More than a few brave souls purchased dog food in hopes that, if necessary, it would keep them alive until better sources of sustenance could be found. By now, Stan noted, even the dog food aisles were sparsely supplied.

The bread was gone; so was the milk. Empty egg cartons littered the dairy aisles. Most vegetable racks were vacant. The shelves where the canned foods were usually stocked were barren. Stan found a box of instant rice on the floor. Apparently someone had knocked it off a shelf and in the darkness, it had gone undiscovered. That and two dented cans of green beans were the extent of the food Stan carried as he made his way toward the long checkout lines.

“Oh, excuse me, ma’am,” Stan said, more from habit than civility, as he bounced off a grandmotherly woman in front of him. She had actually been the one to bang into him, but assessing blame in these conditions is as foolish as someone complaining about an open window on the Titanic while it was sinking.

“Quite all right, young man. Are you finding any food?” the woman asked sprightly.

“No, ma’am,” Stan replied. “Not much. And I have a wife and toddler at home. I don’t know what were going to feed our daughter.”

“Well, take this. The woman handed a loaf of bread in Stan’s direction.

“Oh, no! I couldn’t take your bread.” Stan replied, much to his amazement. “There’s no another loaf to be found anywhere else in the store. Believe me, I’ve looked!”

“It’s all right. Go ahead and take it,” the woman said sweetly. “You need it more than I do.”

“But what about you? What are you going to eat?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. My church is taking good care of me. I’m just here looking to find some food to help someone else. And I guess I found someone else I could help. “

“Your church?” Stan asked

“Yes, for the past few years, our church has been stockpiling basic food supplies to help our congregation and other members of the community get through times of shortages. Many laughed at our pastor when Y2K was hardly a bump in the road, but he was not diverted from his belief in preparing ahead of time. As the Bible says in Proverbs, a wise man sees the need and prepares for it ahead of time. So our church stays ready for an awful storm, a flood, or even an earthquake.” The woman paused for a moment, but it was long enough for Stan to notice the twinkle in her eye.

How can she be so calm in all of this? He wondered.

The woman’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “Fortunately, we didn’t need nearly as much food as the leaders of our congregation had prepared for,” she said, “but it’s a good thing the church thought ahead. No one is poking fun at our food pantry anymore.”

“So your church is helping to feed you during these blackouts?” Stan asked, astonished.

“Oh, yes, the church provides food for about two hundred other people who live near our church property. We’re not eating fancy restaurant cuisine, but we’re surviving. A number of people are actually living in the church gymnasium. These stressful times have pulled our community together like never before.

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” said Stan as he accepted the bread from the woman. “Are you sure you are going to have enough?” he asked with genuine concern.

The woman smiled at him in the shadows as they inched closer to the parallel checkout counters. “Thank you for your concern, but it is unwarranted. I’ll be fine. I have a good group of people around me. The church is just up the road from the grocery store.” The woman reached into her purse and produced a church bulletin, complete with a picture of the church, an address, and a phone number. Stan recognized the church immediately. He passed by it a thousand times before without giving it much thought.

“If you need help, please stop by,” said the woman joyfully. “We can always stretch the soup a little further.”

Stan was intrigued. Almost to his own surprise, he heard himself saying, “I’d really like to know more about your church.”

“Well, I’m on my way there as soon as I leave the store. Why don’t you come on over?”

“Maybe I will.” Stan replied, as he thought of Christine and the baby at home in the cold, with nothing to eat. “Maybe we will.”