fluffy

coming to the end of one of my shifts at "the w.s." (a nickname used by me. and me alone.) i was cashiering for the massive hoard of people as fast as i possibly could.
next in line stood a man my age with longish hair, and a corduroy jacket over a hoodie sweatshirt.
and a hat. a fuzzy pink hat with the word "fluffy" on it.
i made eye contact and said, "are you ready to go?"
he said, "yep", turned and headed towards the exit, then stopped and walked over to me, chuckling to himself over how he had literally started "to go".
"good for you", i mumbled. "did you find everything you needed?"
he smirked, "well, i found everything i needed here." and then chuckled to himself again.

i was tired. and worn. the district manager was visiting that day which had little to no direct effect on me except to make everyone who wasn't a seasonal worker very tense and bossy. i had been yelled at yelled at! by the evil shipping woman who works in the back and who i (and i alone. again.) secretly refer to as "billy goat gruff" seventeen times.

i looked up into fluffy's eyes. looking for some spark of humanity. "you, sir, are taking me literally for humor's sake and i cannot handle it right now."
fluffy looked at me and, with a note of pity in his voice said, "okay."
i took a deep breath and exhaled. "okay."

and we both continued on with our day.

Comments

Nama said…
man, i do not miss working retail during the holidays at all.

but you seem to do it so well! mostly...somewhat...well, a little. actually, not at all. huh.
Jon said…
Way to stick it to the fluffy man! Poor humor will not be tolerated!
Anonymous said…
You have to teach people early on that they're not funny. You were doing fluffy a service.
Leah said…
Ha ha. His hat said "fluffy."