Every year it's the same, procrastinators galore, they bustle through the mall trying to find those last minute Christmas gifts. Every year Jack stands there, being entirely too nice, never losing patience, never appearing rude or getting upset. Utterly calm. Every year until this one. Jack was ringing up a customer, the last in a line of about thirty, he was nearly done with his shift and was patiently waiting for his manager to let him clock out. He scans the store, searching for the blond haired geezer that would secure for him his freedom. Not seeing her he turns around coming face to face with the most ecclectically dressed woman he ever saw. She wore a pink raincoat, tied at the waist with a neon green scarf hung loosely around her neck. Her boots were black leather with five inch heels, and atop her head was a red beret. She gazed at him over her huge bifocal glasses, a smile on her face that spoke volumes about how much help she needed. "Hello there young man, can you help me with something?" she asks kindly enough. Jack has no idea the cat and mouse game he is about to enter, nor does he really care at the moment because he knows he is about to leave any time now. "Sure Ma'am what can I help you with today?" answers jack politely, still staring at the rediculous ensemble that this apparently crazy lady donned. "Well I'm looking for something for my son. He likes video games, so I was thinking I would get him one of those...." she trailed off, looking around the store. "Well you might be better off trying ElectriCity, the electronics store across the way." Jack tells her, now totally in awe of how crazy this lady really is, this was obviously a clothing store. She continued to ask about video games and different gaming consoles. Jack, keeping his calm, complying with the needs of his customer, answers her constant stream of questions. He is not really into video games so doesn't know how to answer most of them but he tries to the best of his ability. This goes on for another fifteen minutes, when all of a sudden, you hear a loud crash from outside the store prompting the alarms to go off. Soon security arrives on the scene to investigate what the noise was. When they entered the store they are greeted by a peppy Jack "Hi How are you guys today, can I intrest you in fifteen percent savings on all gift cards".They could hardly believe their eyes, there was a woman in a pink raincoat hanging over the smashed glass counter, blood dripping over the jagged edges and forming a pool at her knees. Jack was standing there just standing there calm as a cucumber, with a huge crazy grin on his face, seemingly oblivious to the corpse before him. This year was different, this year was not like every year. This year a man lost his head and a woman lost her life, all because an old woman did not know where she was and a worker couldn't get out of work on time. Let this be a lesson to all of you shift managers out there. |