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I looked at him peacefully as I swirled a french fry in my puddle of runny mayonnaise, and thought of all the times I’ve thought of doing the exact same thing. We talked a bit longer and then parted ways; me thinking about how a few choice words and a man’s weathered old face could influence me so much, while Earl probably thought about the last meal he had that he didn’t have to pick cigarettes butts and condom wrappers off of.
I wandered off back to my apartment, and passed out in my bed drunk as usual, but I seemed to have slept for days. Waking up and looking at my clock slowly change from hour to hour, minute to minute; time was crawling by, but I didn’t seem to mind as I blissfully passed the time with only my mind’s eye as entertainment. I felt the whole planet rotate and revolve around me and I didn’t mind, I didn’t want to be bothered; I was totally comfortable and happy lying in my bed as my bizarre and perverse dreams floated through my head. I felt aware in a way of my surroundings, like I had been here before, and this feeling oozed into the morning with some kind of natural progression. I got up and walked to my window I had stared out of only a few hours before, and while the people and actions had changed, they were all still the same. Oh well.
I decided to go book shopping so I showered and dressed and headed out the door. This bookstore in particular was my favourite one in the city; it was probably the biggest one I had ever been in, it had tons of obscure books, and there was no Starbucks attached to its hip. Did I ever hate those latte swilling hipsters crowding my favourite bookstores. I had no idea what these types read, but there sure was a ton of them around every other bookstore in the city, which is totally beyond me.
When I got there I shuffled around the science books, looking over some astronomy ones and evolutionary theory as well. I flipped through one that was a biography of Darwin, and decided on that one alone due to my cash flow situation. I was rounding the corner when I heard some old man arguing with the cashier. I got closer and heard him complaining about something ridiculous like a certain book being out of stock and how he’ll never shop here again and bla bla blaaaa. I suddenly remembered of all those shitty days I spent as a cashier at a number of different stores taking guff from impatient and insatiable customers and understood completely how the poor girl at the counter probably just wanted to take a knife and handcuffs and torture this guy until he knew what it was like.
“Hey buddy, it’s not her fault you have shitty taste in books, why don’t you go across the street to get your toupee trimmed and call it a day?” He turned around and gave me some old man version of the stink eye.
“Mind your own business kid! And when I grew up, we respected our elders!”
“Respect is earned not demanded, someone as old as you should know that by now. Just quit when you’re not even more behind, ok?”
He gave me another one of his stupid looks and just stormed out of there as everyone tried to piece together the last 20 seconds or so. The cashier just stared at me like just about everyone else as they whispered to each other what they thought of this thoroughly bizarre chain of events.
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