The person who just got in line, maybe five people behind you, makes a mad dash to jump over to the new lane...even though they've only been waiting in line for no more than a minute.
What makes me even MORE crazy, is when I'm waiting in that line with four tired, whiny, climbing on my head children, who are about to make me lose my mind. When I turn to try to get to the new lane and that person looks right at me and STILL shoots over to the new aisle...it makes my blood boil.
This happened the other day at our grocery store and the cashier and I looked at each other while her jaw dropped in disbelief. What can you do though?
Then there was tonight. Our little girl's birthday is coming up this week and I've been to different stores looking for the one thing she's been hoping for...begging for...pleading for.
I hadn't found it.
My husband had driven all six of us from place to place and we had all had it. We were tired and frustrated. I asked him to make one more stop at our Toys R Us for a last ditch effort.
Driving up to entrance, he gave me that, "Make it fast," look as I pulled myself out of the car. All four kids started screaming, "TOYS R US! Can we go in?!" As I ducked towards the store, Adam drove off to what I was sure was a colorful exchange of screaming children and an irritated dad.
Inside the store, I shot through the aisles, when a heavenly light glowed over the section of toys where Lauren Elizabeth's dream present sat. There it was. A new wave of energy pushed through me as I grabbed it and sped to the check out lane. The only check out lane. All the others were closed. This lane only had one couple and a little boy checking out so it couldn't have been that bad.
As the cashier rang up their items, he tried to scan a costume. It wouldn't take. The woman ahead of me checking out said, "I can go get another one". The cashier responded, "No, no. Let me get someone". (Here we go.)
We stood and waited for a manager or someone. As you would imagine, a line began to form. My thoughts went back to the car with what I was sure by now was filled with four delirious kids and one enraged husband. My internal struggle began, "should I stay or should I go?" I couldn't find her present anywhere else and there was no time before her birthday.
Then out of nowhere, I heard, "I can help the next person in line".
Looking up, I saw that another cashier had opened a new lane. I was the next person in line but I knew that never mattered. I was stuck between the people checking out and the people behind me.
That's when it happened. The woman directly behind me, stood back and pulled away so I could move. I stood in shock for a second, then realized what she was doing. She was letting me go. I wanted to hug her. Even though she would have thought that I was a crazy person, I literally wanted to squeeze her. I looked at her and said, "Thank you So much. Seriously, thank you."
I didn't have the kids with me, she never could have known that our car was probably ready to explode in the parking lot...and yet she still let me by.
It made me realize that there are two things that seem to be less common these days. Common sense and common courtesy. I can't begin to assume to know everybody's situation. Maybe the lady at the grocery store from the other day was rushing home to get to a sick child. Maybe she was running late for work. It's hard to say.
But for once, it was nice to have someone demonstrate a level of common courtesy in this busy, busy world.
So to you kind person in the Toys R Us check out lane, Thank you for making a soon to be five year old little girl happier than you could ever imagine. You'll never know how much it meant to her...or to me.
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