Did the Rapture Happen While I Was Shopping?

Today I had one of the weirdest experiences, and it happened not once, but twice.

I pulled into a store parking lot, and it was packed. The kind of packed where you have to circle around looking for a spot and start wondering if you really need whatever you came for. I finally found a place, went inside, grabbed what I needed, and headed back out.

The parking lot was practically empty. Not just a little less crowded. Empty. As in, where did everybody go? I stood there for a second trying to figure out if I’d somehow lost track of time. Maybe I had been shopping longer than I thought. Maybe I’d accidentally wandered every aisle in the store. But no. I was in and out.

Then it happened again. Different store. Same exact thing. Packed when I arrived. Empty when I left.

By that point my mind had moved beyond logical explanations. My first thought was that maybe the Rapture happened while I was inside, and somehow I got left behind. That’s not exactly the kind of realization you want to have standing in a parking lot holding a bag of purchases.

My second thought was that perhaps the zombie apocalypse had started and everyone else got the memo except me. Maybe there was some emergency alert that went out while I was comparing prices or trying to remember why I walked into the store in the first place.

I know there are perfectly reasonable explanations. People come and go. Stores get busy and then they don’t. But when the same strange thing happens twice in one day, it starts to feel a little suspicious.

All I’m saying is if I pull into a crowded parking lot tomorrow and come back out to complete silence and abandoned shopping carts, I’m not sticking around to investigate. I’ve watched enough movies to know that’s how the main character ends up getting chased by zombies.

And honestly, if the Rapture did happen and I got left behind, at least I know I went down doing something important.

I was shopping.