I work in a decent sized, local, indie bookstore. Itâs a great job 99% of the time and a lot of our customers are pretty neat people. Any who, middle of the day this little old lady comes up. Sheâs lovably kooky. She effuses how much she loves the store and how she wishes she could spend more time in it but her husband is waiting in the car (OH! I BETTER BUY HIM SOME CHOCOLATE!), she piles a bunch of art supplies on the counter and then stops and tells me how my bangs are beautiful and remind her of the ocean (âWoooooshâ she says, making a wave gesture with her hand)
Ok. I think to myself. Awesomely happy, weird little old ladies are my favorite kind of customer. Theyâre thrilled about everything and theyâre comfortably bananas. I can have a good time with this one. So we chat and itâs nice.
Then this kid, whoâs been up my counter a few times to gather his school textbooks, comes up in line behind her (weâre connected to a major university in the city so we have a lot of harried students pass through). She turns around to him and, out of nowhere, demands that he put his textbooks on the counter. Heâs confused but she explains that sheâs going to buy his textbooks.
He goes sheetrock white. He refuses and adamantly insists that she canât do that. Itâs like, $400 worth of textbooks. She, this tiny old woman, bodily takes them out of her hands, throws them on the counter and turns to me with a intense stare and tells me to put them on her bill. The kid at this point is practically in tears. Heâs confused and shocked and grateful. Then she turns to him and says âyou need chocolate.â She starts grabbing handfuls of chocolates and putting them in her pile.
He keeps asking her âwhy are you doing this?â She responds âDo you like Harry Potter?â and throws a copy of the new Cursed Child on the pile too.
Finally sheâs done and I ring her up for a crazy amount of money. She pays and asks me to please give the kid a few bags for his stuff. While Iâm bagging up her merchandise the kid hugs her. Weâre both telling her how amazing she is and what an awesome thing sheâs done. She turns to both of us and says probably one of the most profound, unscripted things Iâve ever had someone say:
âItâs important to be kind. You canât know all the times that youâve hurt people in tiny, significant ways. Itâs easy to be cruel without meaning to be. Thereâs nothing you can do about that. But you can choose to be kind. Be kind.â
The kid thanks her again and leaves. I tell her again how awesome she is. Sheâs staring out the door after him and says to me: âMy son is a homeless meth addict. I donât know what I did. I see that boy and I see the man my son could have been if someone had chosen to be kind to him at just the right time.â
Iâve bagged up all her stuff and at this point am super awkward and feel like I should say something but I donât know what. Then she turns to me and says: I wish I could have bangs like that but my darn hair is just too curly.â And leaves.
And that is the story of the best customer Iâve ever had. Be kind to somebody today.
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