The Cost of Living

Inside a local pizzeria, I huddled in my winter coat on this drearily cold day in May. Staring at the menu trying to determine the price increase on a slice of pizza since my last visit, multiple live news broadcasts chattered in my ears. The owner seemed annoyed that I quoted aloud the price of inflation before ordeirng a vegetable neopolitan slice.

Behind the counter, a radio station broke for a live report of emerging bad weather conditions. High wind gusts and heavy rain from a nor'easter were traveling across our region. I looked to the blaring television on my right for possible coverage of this storm. Instead, the TV coverage showed destroyed homes from the deadly string of tornadoes that just ransacked Midwest states. Trying to get my mind off of the doom and gloom, I started to read the ticker scroll at the bottom of the screen. The ticker mentioned rebuilding efforts from the devastating cyclone that hit across the other side of the world. If that were not enough, television programming was interrupted by breaking news that a sizeable earthquake hit mainland China and ten thousand people are feared dead.

By the time my pizza was heated in the oven and handed to me, the owner could read the despondency on my face. He knew it had nothing to do with him passing on the rising cost of flour to make the pizza dough to his customers.

He smirked, “Two bucks for a pizza slice ain’t bad now, huh buddy?”

The cost of living I said in my head.