Today's Chapter, in which I get accosted by an old woman at the Exxon
I met Big Daddy for lunch today at El Porton. Mmmm...chalupas. I didn't have enough gas to make it all the way back downtown, so I went across the street to Exxon to fill up. Then I went inside to buy some bottled water to get me through the afternoon.
I'm standing in the line to the right (two cashiers are checking customers), behind this old white woman who is insisting on counting out correct change for her carton of Dorals. To my left, a young black man is waiting in the other line. When the person in front of him completes his transaction, that cashier leaves the counter. So Young Black Man comes over & gets in my line behind me. Old White Lady is still scrounging for coinage in the bottom of her purse.
Eventually, the second cashier returns to her post. She looks at me and says, "I'll help the next person in line" and I shift over to her side of the counter. I hear Young Black Man say, "I shoulda stayed over there." So I politely (I thought?) turn to him and say, "I'm sorry! I should have let you go."
He smiles and says, "That's alright, honey. You go ahead." (Flashback to short skirt, three-and-a-half-inch heels.) I turn back to my cashier, who is nearly finished ringing up my two bottles of Dasani and pack of Trident cinnamon. I hear the man say something about "that's what I get for getting out of line."
At which point, Old White Lady (now next to me) jerks around and yells at us, "HEY! BE NICE! THIS IS A PUBLIC PLACE...something something something." I was so taken aback I didn't quite absorb her full message.
Well, of course, Young Black Man isn't taking that shit from her. Not in this neighborhood. She was probably drunk anyway. So he starts fucking with her, and says, "Wadn't nobody talking to you." Which just encourages her to yell longer and louder.
I scribbled something barely resembling a name on my credit card slip (yes, I use a gas card to charge three dollars and twenty-nine cents), the Exxon lady says, "Have a nice day." I reply with my standard, "You, too." Then added, "ESPECIALLY you!" given that her job obviously involves dealing with drunken psycho Doral-smoking bitches.
