She was fast becoming furious with the girl in front of her. "What do you mean you won't be doing any exchanges until the new year? I've been waiting in this goddamn line-up for 25 minutes and my son has been begging me to take him to pee for 20 of those minutes. And, no, I didn't see this tiny sign saying 'No returns during Boxing Week' because there were 200 people standing BETWEEN ME AND THE SIGN."
Her voice was getting louder and she couldn't stop it. The girl at the cash - and she really was just a girl - looked completely overwhelmed. The people behind her were waiting impatiently just as she had. But she couldn't just walk away without taking one last shot: "Have yourself a shitty New Years - you and your stupid return policy just ruined mine." And with that, she spun on her heels to make her escape, dignity in tatters.
Through the whole encounter, the 6 or 7-year old boy at the angry woman's side stood and stared at the girl behind the counter (her name tag said 'Jessica'). Even as his mom tried to storm away, the boy held Jessica's eye, his shame apparent. Jessica felt bad for him and quickly reached under the counter, grabbed the last candy cane, and thrust it into the boy's hand as he finally yielded to his mom's insistent tugging.
Now the boy and his mom went to the book store. There were legs everywhere. People kept bumping into him and his mom. Everyone seemed really mad. His mom stood in front of an empty shelf cursing that the one thing she came in for was gone. Then she dragged him to the smelly bathroom, and then to get a coffee at the place in the store with the cookies and stuff. The line went on forever. When they finally got to the front, his mom ordered her complicated drink and got him the last cookie. When the drink came, it was wrong (too many pumps or something). Now his mom was yelling again and the girl she was yelling at ('Heather') looked like she was about to cry. Her job was to make the coffee, but she wasn't the one that wrote down what his mom wanted. But that didn't matter to his mom. By the time she was done, the whole store was staring at them.
When his mom wasn't looking, he reached into his pocket and got out the candy cane Jessica had given him. Now he gave it to Heather. She put it in her pocket and gave him a small smile. He smiled back and then once again let himself be dragged away.
His mom had a bad day and was in a terrible mood until long after they got home.
Jessica had a bad day, hated her job, and didn't want to ever go back. But she did because she had to.
The only good part of Heather's day was the little boy who gave her the candy cane.
The little boy mostly forgot about the whole thing by the time they were in the car.
Sometimes his mom got frustrated. But the little boy knew it wasn't Jessica or Heather who frustrated her. It was everything else that pushed her to the point of yelling at complete strangers. She needed a good, long sleep so she could go back to being her usual, loving self.
Jessica couldn't pin her terrible day on one person. It was EVERYBODY, ALL DAY. She needed food and a good, long sleep to go back to her usual, happy self.
Heather, too, felt under attack from the minute the coffee shop opened until it mercifully closed 12 hours later. She needed to watch some TV and have a good, long sleep to go back to being her usual, relaxed self.
When they got home, the little boy had some food, watched some TV, and went to bed. Just before he closed his eyes, he wondered about why nice people weren't always nice to each other.
Then he drifted off and had a good, long sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment