I was at the store. It was a big store, for phones and computers and many other things. I went there sometimes for little parts, like a new charger for my old phone. My phone is not a smart phone. It is a flip phone. Most people do not use flip phones now. I like it because it is simple and quiet. It does not make many noises or tell me many things I do not ask for. I just need it to call my sister sometimes. I was waiting near the counter for the phone things. My charger broke last week. I needed a new one. It was a quiet day, I thought, but then it was not so quiet.
A woman was at the counter. She was talking very loud. She had a boy with her. He looked like a teenager. The boy was looking at the floor, not at his mom. The woman, she was young, maybe twenty or twenty-one years old. She had on nice clothes. She moved her hands a lot when she talked. She thought she was very good looking, I think. She looked in the shiny glass of the counter a lot, like a mirror, to see her hair. Her hair was very blonde. Her face was a bit round, and her body was a bit round too. Not bad, but not how she looked at herself. Her voice was strong. It made my head feel a bit buzzy. I just wanted my charger.
She was talking to the man who worked there. He was a young man too, with a blue shirt. He looked tired. The woman was saying something about a phone. She wanted a new phone for her son, the quiet boy. She said it should be free. She kept saying, “It was a promise! You said it! Your store said it!” The man in the blue shirt was trying to be calm. He looked on his computer screen. He looked in a book with many papers. He could not find what she was talking about. He said, “Madam, I do not see a record of that promotion. The current promotion is for this model,” and he pointed to a picture on his screen. It was not the phone she wanted. The phone she wanted was much bigger and more shiny. The boy’s eyes, they looked up fast when she mentioned the big shiny phone, then they went back down.
The woman, her voice got louder then. She leaned over the counter. She was pointing a finger at the man. “No! That is not it! I spoke to someone last week. They said a new X-Pro Max was free with an upgrade plan! This is my son’s birthday! He needs this phone for school! How can he learn without the newest phone?” Her words were fast. My brain felt slow. I tried to understand her words, but they came too quick. I just knew she was angry. The man, he looked very small behind the counter. He said he was sorry, but he could not give a phone for free without a record. He said he could check again, or he could call his manager. He looked at me for a second. I quickly looked at the floor, then at my old charger in my hand. I did not want him to ask me anything.
Then the woman made a noise, like a ‘huff’. She said, “Call your manager! I will show him! I know my rights!” She crossed her arms. Her foot tapped on the floor very fast. The boy next to her, he looked very small now, like he wanted to disappear. He kept kicking his shoe against the leg of the counter. It made a little ‘tap, tap, tap’ sound. It was the only quiet sound in the noisy space. The man in the blue shirt picked up the phone. He pressed some buttons. He talked very quietly into it. He said, “I have a customer needing help with a promotion discrepancy, please.” Then he waited. The woman stared at him. She stared at the phone in his hand. She looked like she was waiting for something important to happen.
Suddenly, a different voice spoke. It was a man from behind me. I had not noticed him. He was older, with a big belly. He said, “Hey! Are you going to help me or not? I’ve been waiting for ten minutes! Some of us actually have things to do!” He sounded very angry too. The man in the blue shirt turned his head. He looked at the angry man, then back at the woman. He looked very confused. The angry man huffed loudly. The woman at the counter, she did not look at the angry man. She just kept looking at the blue shirt man, waiting for the manager. It was like she did not hear the other man. She was only thinking about her phone.
The blue shirt man put his hand over the phone he was holding. He looked at the angry man. “Sir, I’m calling for assistance with this customer right now. I’ll be with you as soon as I can.” The angry man grumbled something. I heard “terrible service.” I just stood there, holding my broken charger. I felt very warm in my face. I wanted to just pay for my charger and go home. But I was not sure if I could even pay for it with all this going on. I just stood very still. The quiet boy, he stopped kicking the counter for a moment. He looked up at his mom, then at the blue shirt man. His face was very sad.
The blue shirt man waited on the phone for a bit longer. He put the phone down then. He sighed. “My manager is busy right now, they said they will be a while.” The woman frowned. “Busy? With what? I am a paying customer!” She thumped her hand on the counter very lightly. “Look,” the blue shirt man said, he sounded very tired now. “I can’t give you the X-Pro Max for free. But I can give you a very good discount on it. And I can give you a free phone case and screen protector. How does that sound?” He looked at her. He looked very hopeful that she would say yes.
The woman thought for a moment. Her tapping foot stopped. She looked at her son. The son looked up at her, his eyes wide. She looked back at the blue shirt man. She made a little smile, a small one. “Fine,” she said. “But the best case. The really nice one.” The blue shirt man nodded fast. He looked so happy. He started typing on his computer very quickly. He showed her some cases. She picked a sparkly one. The boy looked at the phone on the screen, the shiny X-Pro Max. He looked like he could not believe it. The blue shirt man quickly packed the phone and the case. He rang it up. The woman paid. It was not free, but it was much cheaper, I could tell. She looked very pleased with herself. She took the bag from him.
She turned and walked away, her blonde hair swinging. The boy walked with her. He was holding the bag with the new phone. He looked at it through the plastic. He looked so happy for a moment, and then he looked a bit tired again. I watched them walk out of the store. The blue shirt man, he leaned on the counter for a minute. He looked very tired. I walked up to the counter very slowly. I showed him my broken charger. He looked at it. He helped me find a new one very fast. He did not say much. I paid for my charger. I walked out of the store. The bright sun made my eyes hurt a bit. I thought about the boy. He just wanted a phone. He did not ask for all the loud talking. He just wanted his mom to be normal. I felt bad for him.
