I work in a decent sized, local, indie bookstore. Itās 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. Sheās 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 (āWoooooshā 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. Theyāre thrilled about everything and theyāre comfortably bananas. I can have a good time with this one. So we chat and itās nice.
Then this kid, whoās been up my counter a few times to gather his school textbooks, comes up in line behind her (weāre 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. Heās confused but she explains that sheās going to buy his textbooks.
He goes sheetrock white. He refuses and adamantly insists that she canāt do that. Itās like,Ā $400Ā worth of textbooks. She, thisĀ tiny old woman, bodily takes them out of her hands, throws them on the counter and turns to meĀ with a intenseĀ stare and tells me to put them on herĀ bill. The kid at this point is practically in tears. Heās confused andĀ shocked and grateful. Then she turns to him and says āyou need chocolate.ā She starts grabbing handfuls of chocolates and putting them in her pile.
He keepsĀ asking her āwhy areĀ you doing this?ā She responds āDo you likeĀ Harry Potter?āĀ and throws a copy ofĀ the new Cursed Child on the pile too.
Finally sheās done and I ringĀ herĀ up for a crazy amount of money. She pays and asks me to please give the kid a few bags for his stuff. While Iām bagging up her merchandise the kid hugs her. Weāre both telling her how amazing she is and what an awesome thing sheās done. She turns to both of us and says probably one of the most profound, unscripted things Iāve ever had someone say:
āItās important to be kind. You canāt know all theĀ times that youāve hurt people in tiny, significant ways. Itās easy to be cruel without meaning to be. Thereās nothing you can do about that. But you can choose to be kind. Be kind.ā
The kid thanks her again and leaves. I tell her again how awesome she is. Sheās staring out the door after him and says to me: āMy son is a homeless meth addict. I donāt 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.ā
Iāve bagged up all her stuff and at this point am super awkward and feel like I should say something but I donāt 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.ā And leaves.
And that is the story of the best customer Iāve ever had. Be kind to somebody today.
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