"It's a Beautiful Life"- Genevieve Galvan Frenes

Day 6 -There’s so much commotion over the toilet paper dilemma that I thought, “What would a toilet paper package experience?” If I were the last toilet paper package at a big warehouse store, what would my experience be? Here’s my story…

From the perspective of a toilet paper package:

It’s dark and cold in here. The store hasn’t opened yet, thank goodness.

Last night was crazy. People crammed the warehouse and took this and that from every shelf. I was lucky to survive! But somehow, I’m still here and a new day is coming.

Normally, it’s warm in here surrounded by my buddies. My buddies are the other packages that stack the crates and keep me warm in this big building of a house where we live. It’s a good life, but something has changed. People are different. For some reason, they really need some good toilet paper.

The lights are going on. At first, there isn’t any noise. Then the rumbling begins and the wheels can be heard, traveling fast, as though others are racing each other. The screeching of wheels can be heard from the baskets as they turn the corner. The sound radiates and grows increasingly louder.

In the distance, two men are now running my way with their baskets. As they head toward me, they abandon their baskets, and run full speed toward me! One man has a baseball cap and the other has a cowboy hat. Both head directly my way.

Before they get to my crate, baseball man trips cowboy man and away he tumbles, rolling on a big gut that I can tell must be hurting by now.

Baseball man grabs my package, then runs back to get his basket. Once I’m secured in the basket, he begins to leave in the other direction. He seems satisfied now that he has me with him.

Before he knows it, cowboy man is headed right behind him, and baseball man begins to jog, then run with the basket. My head is hitting the inside wires of the cart, and I can’t understand why this is happening to me.

Cowboy man grabs the back of baseball man’s shirt and pulls him back and to the ground. I’m still in the cart, rolling quickly away until I pounce into a box of rugs in a nearby display. As I look back, the two men are fighting on the ground, punching each other, their hats off their heads now, and spectators now surround them.

Nearby, a teenage boy sees me in the cart. He slowly grabs the basket and starts to walk away from the men. The men have now stopped fighting, and as they get up, they see teenage boy stealing me away from them.

“Hey, hey you!!!” Cowboy man states.

“Where you going with my toilet paper?” Baseball man yells.

Teenage boy looks back terrified and runs with me, turning the corner quickly to hide from the men. Once he’s out of sight, he tears my package open and puts my rolls into his backpack.

“What are you doing?” I think to myself. “I’m a package, not a single lonesome traveler!”

There are now 10 of my rolls in his backpack and as he attempts to shove more into his bag, the men turn the corner and see him with my rolls.

“Put those back!” Baseball man states, “Those are mine!”

“No they’re not,” Cowboy man states, “I saw that package first.”

Teenage boy runs like the wind and pushes the basket into the next aisle. He taunts them, and both men begin to chase the mischievous young boy into another nearby aisle.

Spectators have gathered around me as I sit naked in the basket, surrounded by granola bars. The shame!

First, a lady in a workout suit grabs a quite a few rolls and stuffs them in her over sized purse. Then an old woman hides more rolls in her big grocery bag. Another man, looking around as though he’s being watched, takes another six rolls and hides them in his windbreaker. Lastly, a young girl sees my last roll, jumps on the bottom edge of the basket to reach me, and pulls me out of the plastic.

I’m done. No longer a part of my rolls. Just a single roll, sadly alone.

As the young girl leaves, she tucks me in the back of her hoodie, so no one can see me. I peer out the back of the sweater, and in the distance, I see the baseball man and cowboy man reaching the empty cart with the plastic wrapping of what once used to be my home.

Baseball man looks at the cowboy.

“You idiot!” he says at the top of his lungs.

Cowboy man takes his hat, which is still in his hand, places it gently on his head, and with all his might, punches baseball man in the face, dropping him to the floor.

I’m not sure what has happened in the world, but I’m starting to feel very special 🙂

Stay blessed and please…share your toilet paper.