there’s a guy who periodically comes to my job, orders food, & doesn’t come to get it. he seems to delight in ordering the food; it has become clear, from experience, that he will never come get it. yet we must prepare him the food, in case this time, is the time, that he does,
i think about this guy 80 times a day. why does he do this? is he terribly, ruinously lonely, or is this just what does it for him? did he read peanuts in his past & find himself thinking, as lucy pulled the football away from charlie brown, “this has awakened something in me?”
i can never ask him this, of course. this is not my role in the social drama we play out every few weeks at my workplace. my job is to cheerfully take his order, pretending that i don’t know, as he pretends not to know, even though we BOTH KNOW that he will not come to get it.
he does not pay for this food; the way we are set up allows for order, pickup, then payment, without deviation. my bosses know he does this; it’s not enough loss to justify intervention. we can’t not make him the food, bc if he does come, and it’s not prepared, it’s our mistake.
and so for the rest of the time i work here, or until he gets bored, we will play this little game, him and me and whoever else is caught in his bizarre crosshairs. why, sir!!! why do you do this!!! surely there must be better ways for you to pass an evening!! aren’t you hungry??
anyway: this is working with the general public in any kind of service capacity. he is one of a large collection of humans that does not know me by name, could not pick me out of a lineup, but who i will think about until i am dead. it’s fascinating, in a grotesque sort of way.
