Tuesday, they came in the store, both with children in their shopping carts. The grandmother couldn't stop cooing at the baby that her son was pushing in the cart.
"Do you want to help us make another one," the father said, adding that he was trying to keep up with Kate and Jon Plus eight. I started to say something witty, not that I had anything witty in my head.
The mother laughed and said, "We don't need any more kids." There were two boys in her basket. She pushed it to the infant care section. The father followed with a shrug of his shoulders, as if he was serious considering his statement.
I told a co-worker about it because she was sitting at the baby registry counter and I wanted to know if she had heard him. She hadn't. I went back to standing in the customer service box and tried to forget what he said. There wasn't much to do. I organized the items to be returned to the shelves; the diapers and baby lotions and clothes. Nothing was returned damaged so I didn't need to look up the item on the computer and fill out a RGD form. I straightened the shopping carts and then straightened the sippy cups and drinking bottles with children's names and sayings such as spoiled, drama queen and pirate girl. I still couldn't get the father's statement out of my head but at least I was busy if the store manager came out of his office or the back of the house where he mainly worked. I wasn't leaning.
I sighed and looked around the near empty store. I was glad I had a job, even though I usually worked only one to two days a week and then only for four hours a day. I didn't think a teenager could live off of that and I wasn't a teenager anymore. I needed a better job.
I greeted guests as they came in the store. The company liked guest as opposed to customer.
One woman walked up the customer service box and asked where she could find mirrors to keep watch on the baby while driving. The family returned, but the mother pushed her shopping cart of two boys out of the store. She placed two bouncing balls on the counter and shook her head no at her husband and then continued out of the store. I was thinking I could prolong the conversation and call for back up.
"There's actually a new mirror, one that can be used at night as well as in the daytime," I said and then directed the customer to the aisle where she'd find the baby view mirrors.
Just get him out of the store quickly, I thought as I turned to ring up his bath tub, wash cloths and towel. I smiled at him and hoped I was being friendly and wasn't encouraging him. As I rang up each item, I kept thinking that at least I had a job in this lousy economy.
