Cackle

cackle
verb, intransitive. To give a raucous, clucking cry (of a bird, typically a hen or goose). To make a harsh sound resembling such a bird’s cry when laughing. Also a noun.

Morose after her long night in the nearly-deserted office, Anna trudged the store aisles, wishing someone else would do the grocery shopping for her once in awhile. It got so old, so tiresome, week after week--the same choices, the rising prices. It was always different, yet it never changed.

She finally came to the end of her list and made her way to the checkout stations at the front of the store. A few more customers were there than there had been when she started shopping, but not many. She had her choice of registers, and when Erin smiled and beckoned, she chose hers. Her bad mood didn’t lift at Erin’s pleasant greeting, and she knew her glum reply wasn’t very polite. She just couldn’t seem to shake off her depression.

As Erin scanned the last few items, Anna heard the cashier at her back cackle, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the coolest of them all?” She saw Erin’s face crumple, then return to its usual bland expression with effort. It was as if Anna had been waiting for that inspiration all night, and perhaps she had. A profound belly-laugh gripped her and she let it take hold, let it out as she counted money, handed it to Erin and watched her count out the change. She was still laughing aloud as she put her purse away and pushed the cartful of sacks out the door to the parking lot.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.