I went to the county license office last Tuesday because my papers were going to expire in three months and I do not like to leave things to the last minute because it is very bad to be late for anything. I like everything to have a proper place and a proper time. In my spare time I do a very rare hobby called competitive lockpicking which is where you use special metal tools to open padlocks fast without a key. It is a sport that needs a lot of quiet focus and you have to understand how tiny pins line up inside a dark space which makes me very good at seeing patterns and details that other people miss. The office was very messy when I got there which made me feel bad because there were no clear lines and the chairs were just put anywhere.
A young man who looked about twenty-two years old walked inside the door with a young woman who looked like his wife. He was wearing very bright clothes and had a big shiny watch that he kept looking at like he was the most important person in the world. His wife looked extremely bored and was chewing gum very loud and tapping her feet against the floor tiles which made a sharp clicking sound that ruined the quietness of the room. The line of people waiting was very long and there were twelve people standing in a straight line along the wall but this young man did not even look at the line. He walked straight to the front of the desk where the only worker was helping an old lady.
The young man pushed right past the old lady and put his hands on the counter. He told the clerk that he needed to get his car registration done immediately because he had a very important meeting and his time was worth more than anyone else in the building. The clerk was a small woman with glasses who looked very tired and she told him that he had to go to the back of the line and wait his turn like everyone else. The young man got very red in the face and started raising his voice and saying that he did not have time for stupid rules and that he wanted to see the person in charge right now. His wife started shaking her head and complaining loudly to him that this place was always slow and that they should just push their way through because the workers here were lazy.
The clerk pressed a red button under her desk and told the young man that she had just called the main office manager but that the manager was in another building across the street so it would take at least ten minutes for him to walk over. The young man laughed and said he did not care how long it took because he was not moving from the spot until he got what he wanted. His wife started pulling papers off a nearby table and throwing them on the floor to show how mad she was which made a huge mess and made the whole situation feel very chaotic and disorganized.
Right then a man with a very big dog on a leash came through the front door. The dog was very excited and saw a stuffed animal on a childs toy bag and it jumped forward very fast. The leash slipped out of the mans hand and the dog started running in circles around the waiting room which made people jump up on their chairs. This dog created a physical barrier right in the middle of the room because nobody wanted to get bumped by the running animal and it completely divided the queue of waiting people into two separate groups. The security guard who was standing by the back door had to run after the dog which meant there was no one left to watch the angry young man at the counter.
I knew I had to do something because the lack of order was ruining my afternoon plans and I had a very strict schedule to keep. I did not want to yell at the young man because he did not seem smart enough to understand why rules are important and arguing with him would just waste more of my time. I walked up close to him and stood near the counter. I spoke in a very quiet voice so only he could hear me and I told him that the worker at this desk was actually just a helper who did not have the power to stamp the gold seals on the registrations. I told him that the real manager always came out of the back door near the end of the line to help the people who were waiting there first so that the office would look empty from the street. I told him that the smartest people always stood at the very back because that is where the fast service actually happened.
The young man stopped yelling and looked at me with a very confused face while he tried to process what I had said. He looked over at the back of the line and then he looked at his wife. He told his wife that they needed to move to the back of the queue right now because he had figured out a trick to get their papers done faster than anyone else. He acted very proud of himself and puffed out his chest like he had just made a great discovery. His wife stopped throwing papers and followed him to the very end of the line where they both stood looking very pleased with themselves.
At that exact moment the speaker on the wall called my ticket number which was number fourteen. I had to walk through a gray plastic door to go into the private testing room to take my eye exam. Because I was behind the solid wall I could not see what happened when the manager finally arrived or if the young man ever realized that he had been tricked into waiting his turn. I felt a great sense of relief that the waiting room was quiet again and that the line was back in its proper order because nothing is worse than a system that does not work the way it is supposed to.
