Cantaloupe?

First, Miss Colette separated out our chosen items from the shopper behind us. When the conveyer belt moved underneath her, she would get slightly distracted from her job.



Once she passed through the scanner, she slid down to get bagged. This did not phase our check-out lady, who was pretty confused in general. She would lift one bag of produce items after another and name the wrong fruit or vegetable. A bag of avocados: "apples?" she would ask us, clearly puzzled. At first, I thought she just hadn't run into avocados or tangerines or pears much maybe - or something (strange given her profession). But when she lifted the bag of kiwis and said, "cantaloupe?" I understood the problem was more serious. It was almost a case like The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (a fascinating read if you haven't). She was very jolly about the whole thing too - once her chosen name of fruit/vegetable was contradicted or confirmed (sometimes she got it right, but would always ask), she would nod her head and repeat while typing in the code. Odd. So when Colette slid past her with the other groceries, she almost didn't think twice. I half expected her to pick up Colette and query, "grapefruit?" while referencing the long list of possibilities on her produce chart.