encounters/observations

The man behind the counter didn't ask me what I wanted to order. He simply waited, looking at me with the most heartbroken eyes that I had ever seen starting at me from a stranger's face. I was taken aback by the intensity of sorrow written on his face. I placed my order and he set about making my lunch. We were separated by a pane of glass on the counter, and by everything we didn't know and could only guess about each other. He spoke little, as though anything more might break him down completely. I ate my lunch in contemplative solitude while he continued to work behind the counter, taking people's orders and dealing with whatever was happening behind his eyes.

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I'm sitting in the library. All is quiet. Suddenly a voice speaks into an intercom that reverberates throughout the building:
"All available staff come to the break room right away. All available staff come to the break room."
There is a pause, then the voice adds, "Bethany that means you."

I laugh to myself, thinking, "Then why not say that in the first place?"


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Every single register in the store had a substantial amount of people lined up and waiting to check out. Even the fast lanes, for people with only a few items, such as myself who had only one, were full. When I spotted a self-checkout lane with only one person I quickly got in line. Nearly just as quickly I realized that this line would be as slow as any other. The woman in front of me had a shopping cart filled with sale-priced Christmas decorations. Boxes filled with delicate ornaments which had to be handled with care, baskets stacked awkwardly and ribbons which showered bits of glitter on anything they came in contact with. The woman removed each item gingerly from her cart, scanned it, and placed it in a bag. The carousel of bags quickly grew full and she had to remove the bags and stack them in her cart before scanning more items.
It would have been faster for her and the people in line behind her if she had used a regular register, where one person would ring up her items and one would bag them. All she would have had to do was place them on the counter, I thought to myself, grumblingly. My one item was not that important. I considered putting it back and getting it another time but decided it would be better to wait in line instead of wasting all the time I had already spent in the store. I was annoyed with the woman in front of me for not planning things out better. But I didn't stare her down or sigh: I had had that happen to me before, and what is the point? She probably realized that what she was doing hadn't been the best idea, but there was nothing to do about it now. So I waited quietly, checking my phone and staring at the display of candy bars on my right instead of at her.
When the woman finished, she turned to me. "Thank you for being so patient," she said. There was a look of apology in her face and a tone of appreciation in her voice.
"Oh no problem!" I said, giving her a smile, a reflex with me. Yet it was also genuine: I appreciated that she acknowledged my quiet wait. I wasn't annoyed with her anymore. I felt for her. Sale-priced Christmas items may be easy to come by in late December, but kindness from strangers is often far too rare.