Member-only story
Two Minutes Too Long
On the stories we invent about strangers and how little we actually know
A few weeks ago, I was standing in line at a pharmacy behind a woman who was getting irritated because the cashier was taking too long. Nothing unusual. The line was moving slowly and everybody just wanted to leave.
The cashier looked young. Maybe twenty. She kept trying to scan something and it wasn’t working. The woman in front of me started sighing. Then she looked back at me with that little face people make when they want a stranger to join them.
I knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted me to agree that this girl was useless.
I didn’t.
Eventually another employee came over and fixed whatever was wrong. It took maybe two minutes. The woman paid and left.
When it was my turn, the cashier apologized. She looked embarrassed. I told her she didn’t have to apologize to me. Then she said something I wasn’t expecting.
“My mom died yesterday. I probably shouldn’t be here.”
I didn’t know what to say. Everything I thought of sounded stupid. I asked her why she was working. She shrugged and said she couldn’t afford to miss the shift.
That was it.
