Several years ago after hauling a marble slab, a gift for my youngest son, from one end of Westgate Mall to the other, I said I'd never, ever buy something big and have to carry it through the mall again. Well, today I did it - again. Needed to get Jennifer, my youngest granddaughter, a sixteenth birthday gift. I thought about a nice piece of jewelry. My Penney's card has less than fifty bucks on it so that's where I started.
Stood at the jewlery counter quite a while, checking out what they had, when a young, rather rough, hairy young man finally came over and asked if I needed help. I said I did and he asked what kind. I made a motion to the jewelry on display.
"Which one?"
"I would like to look at several."
"Which ones?"
"Can you show me some?"
"Yeah."
"Can you go behind the counter to get them?"
"Yeah."
"Well, then, would you go back there?" At that I motioned for him to go behind the counter so that he could take something out. Looking rather disgusted, he actually went behind the counter.
"Okay, what do you wanna to see?"
"I'd like to know the range of prices for these." I pointed to a section.
"How much you wanna to spend?"
I thought a minute and finally said between fifty and seventy five dollars.
"These all cost more'n that."
I sighed. The thought of dealing with him was more than I could take. "I think I've changed my mind."
I know it's the day after Thanksgiving, but that fellow should have stayed home. Penneys had to have been desperate to have hired him, or they would have asked him to act and look more professional.
In the mall I went into a store that looked like it might have something suitable. The sales lady was extremely nice and did her best to help. I took one look at what she said was "very popular with the young crowd" and thought 'I'm not spending my money on that junk, I'll let her daddy buy it' thanked the lady and left.
Dillards was on the other side of the mall. Went in, found just what I wanted. Not jewelry, but a beautiful jewelry case. Bought it. Saleslady put it in a sack lifted it and said "This is pretty heavy. Can you handle this?" "Oh, yeah, I can handle it" I said, shaking my head. I lifted it, It was a little heavy, but I'd already said I could handle it. Two sales ladies asked if I was sure I didn't need help, and was I parked close. "No problem, I'm just right outside the door in handicaped parking" I said. At the door it dawned on me. Sure, I was right outside the door - all the way across the mall on the other side of Penneys.
If you've ever been seventy nine, tried to walk really fast while doing your best not to drop a huge, heavy package, with people scooting out of your way, while glancing at you out of the corner of their eyes, wondering when you're gonna fall flat on your face dead, then you know how I felt.
I hung onto that package - tight, like it was pure gold, breathing out of my nose while I gasped for breath inside, but didn't dare open my mouth. If I had opened my mouth, I would have been panting so hard fifteen people would have grabbed their cell phones to call 911, while twenty five others tried to steal my purse, lift the package, pull off my finger holding the car keys, and ripp my clothes trying to pull 'em off of me. I would have been left lying on that hard stone floor naked as a jay bird, breathing like a whale coming up for air. I wasn't about to give anybody that privilege.
When I finally got to my car I sat pant'n like a bull elephant in heat for several minutes before I could focus my eyes enough to drive. Yep, I'm a slow learner, but this time surely I have learned my lesson.. Dang, I hope so.
