Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Making Faces

As my dented luck would have it, I stepped into a checkout line behind a young mother with a toddler seated in her cart just as the young boy started bawling with conviction. The mother did her best to placate her child while, at the same time, placing items on the belt.

After a minute or so, the boy noticed me. "What's going on, buddy?" I asked. Then I offered a smile and a few skewed faces. The boy immediately stopped crying and studied me with a countenance that a mechanic might wear when examining a handful of bolts left over after rebuilding an engine.

Before long, the kid was pointing at the soda and candy on display next to him and then looking back at me for my reaction.

We had a thing, and he was calm and quiet as his mother completed her transaction and bagged her groceries. She even thanked me for calming her son before pushing off with her cart.

I'm thinking I might try offering Desiree those same faces the next time she is miffed at me to see if I can deliver her to a new state of mind.

—Mitchell Hegman

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