The weirdest thing happened yesterday at work.

Business was really, really slow, so I was on the makeline, picking out the bins. Jessica, Ashley and Angie were in the back, probably talking. I heard the store's door open and shut and turned around to see a little boy, about 10 years old, waiting at the counter with a coin purse in his hands. I brushed the cheese and stuff off my hands and went to him. As I came into full view of the front of the store, I saw a man standing there too, a little ways back. Momentarily confused, I addressed the usual question to the man, assuming he was the child's parent: "Have you ordered already?"

The man didn't say anything, just made a small gesture towards the boy at the counter. So I turned to the boy. "Have you ordered already?" I repeated my question.

"Um...No," he said. "I'd like your oven special, for one pepperoni pizza."

Oven special? Oh, he must mean... "You mean the carryout special for $6.99?" I asked for clarity, mentally thumping myself. He probably had no concept of fair price or what "carry out" meant or anything.

"Yeah," he said confidently, and I rethought my assumption. Maybe he had heard that phrase after all, on TV or something.

"Okay," I said.

At this moment the man interrupted and said, "I'll pay for him."

I marvelled in confusion at this aloof man offering to pay for a 10-year-old boy he apparently had no connection to.

"Okay...," I said, deciding to just go with what, strange though it was, it looked like: a man delivering a random act of kindness.

I turned back to the boy. "And what would you like on your pizza?"

"Just pepperoni," he said, and promptly dumped out all the coins in his purse. The man made a startled movement and I jumped in and said, "I think this man is going to pay for you." Far be it from me to ruin a man's attempt to ease his conscience! If that is, in fact, what it was.

The boy looked up, surprised, at the man.

"Your total is $7.56," I said to the man. He handed me the $20 bill he had had in his hand the entire time. Had he initially intended to just hand me a $20 and run out?

"Okay, so your change will be $12.44; let me get that for you." I took the $20 bill to the drop box and gathered the man's change.

"Here you go, sir. $12.44." Enough left over to get a carryout special of his own, if that's what he wanted. I dropped a penny. "Whoops, sorry about that." He bent to pick it up. I turned to the boy. "Your pizza will be ready in about 10 minutes, okay?"

Having gathered his final penny, the man walked out of the store, got into a car, and left. I helped the boy finish picking up his coins.

"That was weird!" said the boy as he glanced toward the door the man had just exited out of. I had to laugh. :) Then, not wanting to waste a teaching moment, I said to the boy, "But it was very nice of him to do that for you."

The man had already left, so I couldn't complete my little mini-lesson and have the boy go thank the man, but I don't think the man would have wanted to be thanked anyway.

Truly the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me at Domino's before.

I told Angie, Ashley and Jessica about it as they came back up to the front, done with their chit-chatting for the moment. "Maybe that was his good deed for the day or something," said Angie, obviously as mystified about it as I was.

I wondered what in the world was so heavy on the man's conscience that he would almost silently offer to pay for a 10-year-old boy's pizza.

So that's my little random story for the day. :) Work at Domino's is going fine. I'm finally getting the hang of the computer system, and I've actually been a source of amusement for Jessica, Ashley and Angie twice now, which makes me feel good. :) Especially Angie...I like her a lot.

Ashley is not exactly people-friendly and in the first couple days she ticked me off and I probably offended her too. She was just being a jerk to me, all sass and sarcasm, pointed at me specifically, it felt like, and I asked her, "I know I'm new, but is there a reason you don't like me, or are you like this with everybody?" I tried to cover and make it sound nicer after those first few phrases jumped out of my mouth, but it's a bit hard to cover something like that. I think I kind of stunned her with my outspokenness. (I stunned MYSELF with my outspokenness!!) She hasn't been as openly...what's an adjective to the noun "animosity"?...against me since, but I can tell she still doesn't like me very much. I'll just have to put on my most charming face till she does get to like me. Now that I'm getting more comfortable around the store, it's easier to make jokes with the rest of the workers. That puts everyone at ease, so maybe in time she'll learn to tolerate me. Geez, I'm not that unlikeable, especially when you've only know me for three days!

That day that Ashley and I had our words, Ashley left Jessica and I to the makeline for a moment, and Jessica said in a low voice to me, "About Ashley, it's not that she doesn't like you, she's like that with everybody."

Jessica's confidential way of telling me made me laugh (she's about 17 and had also only known me for three days), and I instantly felt better. "That's all I needed to know, I just needed to know if it was me or if she's just like that with everybody." As long as I know what exactly is up, I can deal. And it doesn't hurt that one of the "young'uns" reaches out and makes me her friend she can talk about the other workers with. :D Ah, high schoolers....

So, dynamics of work: quite the same as ever. Mostly 16-23 years old, although there are more older guys (50s) here than I have ever encoutered. And the manager has an 18-year-old daughter, but she looks youngish. In her mid to late 30s maybe. One thing that's really different at this Domino's is that we don't wear nametags. That makes it a lot harder to get to know people, which I find sad. The people at Domino's is the chief reason I stay there. They're all so take-it-easy types, which is way different than me, and I could use different in my life in this respect. :)

The guy who I assume has been at this Domino's the longest--his name is either Tony or Troy--is really nice, but doesn't work often. I picked up my application from Angie, but I turned it in to Tony/Troy, and when I said, "I know you aren't hiring insiders right now--" he interrupted me with, "Says who?" Those are the kinds of people that work here, and I love 'em. :)

That's enough tales from the makeline today. I've got to get ready for Independence Day!

-Stephanie

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