Christmas eve, the shop was so busy
it was decided we would not be taking
any breaks.
after 6 hours of serving the queue,
I took a mince pie out of my pocket:
mangled, and garnished with pocket fluff, yeah,
but it was Christmas and I was hungry
so I ate it at the checkouts
as I scanned and packed
and the customer, she says:
you brought enough of them for everyone?
no, I told her.
my pockets aren’t big enough to feed everyone,
financially and literally.
hrumph! she jiggled her face.
well that’s not very Christmasy of you, is it?
was she being serious?
give me your lunch, or you’re not being Christmasy –
that was her argument?
because, you know,
she just HAD to have an argument, didn’t she?
with a shopworker? on Christmas eve?
ok.
so after scanning her, like, fifth tub of chocolates,
instead of putting it in a bag, I took the lid off
and asked her: mind if I have all the Malteser ones?
but apparently, THAT was stealing.
whether I was robbing the shop or the customer
I don’t know,
but both she and my boss seemed pretty pissed off about it.
maybe they were sticking up for one another?
after all, it’s good to think of
the less fortunate
during the festive season,
innit just?