Workin at the big mart like I do, you see all sorts of things. Most days are okay, just stockin shelves and pointin folks to the pasta sauce. I don’t mind it much. It’s got a rhythm, you know. Sometimes you get to talk to people, sometimes you don’t. I like to kinda float in between. Watchin people is always interesting, like lookin at a fish tank, everyone got their own way of doin things. My own little finger on my left hand, the pinky, is bent all funny from when I was a kid and fell off my bike. It don’t hurt or nothin, but it makes holdin some of the smaller price guns a little awkward.
One Tuesday afternoon, it was gettin kinda busy, you know, the after-school rush starts mixin with the folks comin home from their jobs. I was over by the snacks, puttin up a new display of them fancy granola bars that nobody really buys but they make us put out anyways. That’s when I heard it, this kinda whiny yellin that always means trouble. It was comin from the candy aisle, which is always a hotspot for little kid chaos. I kinda sighed a little inside, figurin it was just another parent dealin with a sugar-crazed toddler, but then the whinin got louder, and it was a grown-up doin it.
I walked over, tryin to look busy but also listenin. There she was. She was maybe early twenties, not much older than me. She had kinda bleached blonde hair that was tied up in a messy bun, and a full-color tattoo of a big phoenix on her upper arm that was really bright and kinda cool, if it wasn’t for her face bein all red and mad. She was wearin kinda tight clothes that maybe didn’t quite fit right, but she had this look on her face like she thought she was the prettiest thing in the store. She had two little kids with her, maybe three and four years old, and they were scramblin around her legs, totally ignore the situation. One of them had a half-eaten candy bar in his hand, smeared all over his face. The other one was just pokin at a display with a stick he found somewhere.
She was goin on and on to a lady who worked in the bakery section, who looked totally outta place and confused. The blonde lady was sayin how this candy bar was practically defective because it was so easy for her angel to open it. She was like, the packaging was too flimsy, and it caused her little boy to rip it open without even thinkin. She said it was the store’s fault, and her kid was now all upset because he only got one bite before she took it away from him because it was “a health hazard” on the floor. She wanted a new one, for free, and for someone to clean up the mess she just stood there lookin at. The bakery lady, bless her heart, was just kinda noddin and blinkin, lookin like a deer in headlights.
I stepped in then, real calm. I knew I had to take over, the bakery lady was not built for this. I told the blonde lady that I could help her with that. She turned her mad red face to me, and gave me a kinda once-over look, like she was judgin my uniform or somethin. She started tellin me the whole story again, louder this time, about the defective candy bar and how her kid was so sad. The little boy, who was still clutchin the half-eaten candy, started to sniffle a bit when she said he was sad, like she reminded him. The other kid, the one with the stick, dropped his stick and started to scream a really loud, piercing scream for no reason at all. It was so loud it kinda echoed a bit in the aisle. The blonde lady barely even noticed her own kid screamin, she just kept goin on about the candy. She must have been used to that sound.
I let her finish, just standin there, listenin and kinda lookin at the mess on the floor. When she finally took a breath, I told her that I understood her concern about the packaging, and that it sounded like a really frustratin thing to happen. I said that we want all our customers to be happy, and their kids too. I told her that I could definitely get her a new candy bar for her son. Her face kinda softened a little, like she was winnin. But then I added that, since the original candy bar was already opened and eaten, we couldn’t just give it away for free. I explained that store policy meant we had to charge for items that were opened and consumed, even if it was just a little bit. I pointed to the half-eaten one in the kid’s hand, then to the one on the floor. I said I could help her find another one, and she could pay for it at the register, and I would even help her clean up the mess right away.
She frowned. Her lips got all thin. She started to say that was unfair, and she was gonna talk to my manager. I told her that was her right, and I could call the manager for her if she wanted. I took out my walkie-talkie and started to pretend to key it, lookin at her expectantly. She looked at the walkie-talkie, then at my face, then at her kids who were now both kinda whimperin and pullin on her pants. The loud scream had stopped, but now they were both just makin general loud child noises. She paused. I just stood there, kinda smilin a little bit, patient.
She muttered something about how it was just a candy bar and how ridiculous this all was. She grabbed her kids by the hands, pretty rough, and said fine, just fine, she would just get it somewhere else. She said she was never comin back to this store. She stomped off, draggin her kids behind her, leaving the opened candy bar on the floor where it was. I just watched her go, then I bent down and picked up the mess, puttin the candy wrapper in my pocket to throw away later. The bakery lady gave me a look that was a mix of relief and amazement. I just kinda shrugged and went back to my granola bars. The manager never did show up, I guess they were busy somewhere else. Sometimes it’s just quicker to handle it yourself, you know?
It always gets me, how some folks just think the rules don’t apply to them. Like the world owes them somethin for just existin. You see it all the time. Part of me hopes I never see her face again. But another part, the part that knows how these things go, just kinda waits for the next time she walks through those automatic doors, lookin for a fight over somethin silly, thinkin she’s smarter than everyone else. It’s a big world, but some people just keep showin up in the same places.
