I have always been a person who feels things very deeply, sometimes even too much because I can see how everyone around me is hurting or happy just by looking at them. I think this is because of my left eye which was born with a rare medical thing called persistent pupillary membrane where the pupil did not open up all the way and looks like a dark spider web is inside of it. This makes me look at people very close to see how they are looking back at me, and I notice every little twitch in there face. Last Thursday I was at this really beautiful nursery called The Green Haven because I love being around plants since they make my soul feel quiet and safe. I was looking at some ferns when this couple walked in and immediately the whole feeling of the room changed from peaceful to very heavy.
The girl was probably about twenty years old and she was wearing a very tight pink dress that did not really fit her right because she was a little bit chubby, but the way she walked made it clear she thought she was the most beautiful supermodel in the whole world. She kept tossing her hair and looking at her reflection in the glass greenhouse doors with this look of absolute love for herself. Her husband was walking behind her looking very tired and holding her purse, he looked like he had spent his whole life agreeing to things just to make her stop talking. She walked right up to the main counter where they keep the special plants that people already bought and paid for.
There was this incredibly beautiful plant there called a variegated monstera which had leaves that were half white and half green, and it had a big sign on it that said sold to someone named Sarah. The young girl pointed her long fingernail at it and told the cashier that she wanted to buy it right now. The cashier was an older woman with grey hair who looked like she had worked with plants and difficult people for forty years, and she very softly explained that the plant was already sold to another customer who was just bringing their car around to the front. The young girl got this really angry look on her face and said that she did not care about that because she needed this exact plant for her online photos since her face would look perfect next to the white leaves. She spoke like she was doing the store a huge favor just by being inside of it, and she told the cashier to just refund the other person and give her the plant instead.
It was fascinating to watch the husband because his eyes went very wide and he took a step back like he wanted to disappear into the big ficus tree behind him. He looked so embarrassed but also like he was too scared to say anything to her because she would turn her anger on him. The young girl told the cashier that the other customer probably would not even appreciate the plant anyway and that she deserved it more because of how good she would make the store look when she posted it. She actually reached her hand out to grab the pot right off the counter like she thought no one would stop her.
But the grey haired cashier was amazing because she did not get angry at all. She calmly moved the plant further back behind the counter where the girl could not reach it, and she used this very quiet and smooth voice to say that she could not do that because the plant belonged to someone else now. The cashier kept her hands flat on the counter and did not blink, which is a trick I know people use when they want to show they are not scared. The young girl started breathing very fast and her face turned a bright red color that looked really bad with her pink dress, and she started stomping her foot and saying that this was terrible customer service and she was going to get everyone fired.
Just when things were getting really loud, this little boy who was about four years old came running around the corner holding a giant cup of bright blue slushie. He was not paying attention and he tripped over a big clay pot on the floor, and the entire blue slushie went flying through the air. It landed with a huge wet splash right on the young girl’s expensive white shoes and the bottom of her pink dress. The little boy started crying because he lost his treat, and his mom came running over looking terrified.
This completely divided the whole room because now there were two different arguments happening at the same time. The young girl started screaming at the mom about her shoes, and the husband finally spoke up and tried to pull his wife back, which made her even angrier at him. The cashier used her walkie talkie to call for the store manager to come to the front register to help clean up the mess and deal with the screaming. I knew the manager would take a long time to get there because the nursery is huge and the outdoor tree section is all the way on the other side of the property past the parking lot.
The cashier just stood there looking very calm, almost like she was meditating, while she handed some paper towels to the crying boy’s mother and completely ignored the young girl who was still yelling about her ruined outfit. It was like the cashier had a shield around her that the girl’s bad energy could not cross. The young girl kept demanding that the store pay for her shoes and also give her the plant for free now to make up for her bad day, while her husband just stood there looking at his watch like he wished he was anywhere else in the universe.
I really wanted to see how it all ended and if the manager ever showed up to make her leave, but I looked at my own watch and realized I was going to miss the last bus that goes near my house. I had to walk out of the greenhouse while the young girl was still red faced and pointing her finger at the quiet cashier who was just starting to sweep up the blue ice from the floor. Walking away made me feel a little sad because there was so much anger in that beautiful place where things are supposed to grow peacefully, and I spent the whole bus ride home thinking about how exhausting it must be to live your life believing that you are the center of the world when everyone else is just trying to get by.
