Saga of the fountain pen · fear of people

"I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes." — Thoreau, "Economy"

One unintended consequence of this experiment is getting driven into the local….stores, people, weather….to a degree not expected.
Have been wanting to re-fire-up my fountain pen, and have needed cartridges.

Paper patch didn’t have them, recommended last week I try another place that I ultimately couldn’t find. We’d driven all the way to staples on family errand day but all they had was black. Then this morning picked up the book I ordered at Longfellow books (_Not Buying It_) and asked the guy behind the counter where I might be able to get a cartridge for a pen.

He recommended Joe Wigon, a barely-hanging-on office supply on Free Street, just across from the side door of the book shop building. I went out that way, and just up from Wigon’s there was the other stationer the paper patch had recommended.

Going in to the stationer I explained my predicament, although she said they didn’t carry the Waterman cartridges I needed. Then the other worker came over with a #10 envelope full of Waterman cartridges that fit my pen. They’d done inventory the day before and these were some of the miscellaneous things they’d discovered. I made my purchase--$2.60 with tax for 5, which should last me more than a year—NO SHIPPING. And I met and interacted with some more people I’d never seen.
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What’s remarkable to me is the level to which I’d become afraid of people. The post office, the bank, returning things to a store, these are all experiences I’d become somewhat fearful of, sometimes very fearful. Agoraphobia. Fear of the marketplace.