Saturday, February 22, 2014

Mrs. Hillbilly Mom Is Everybody's Friend

Some days, you're the windshield. Some days, you're the bug. Some days, you're Mrs. Hillbilly Mom being lectured by a drug-addled close-walker at a convenience store counter.

The short version of this story (there, there, don't weep, the loquacious Mrs. Hillbilly Mom will return soon enough) is that I took my mom for a ride when I went to gas up T-Hoe. I normally go to a different gassing up station, but I wanted Mom to have a longer ride. I pumped the gas, and left Mom clutching her purse on T-Hoe's leather seat while I went inside to pay. There was only one customer ahead of me, and he finished up as I got in line.

I told the Pat (still don't know if that was a guy or a gal) in a work smock how much gas I pumped, and selected two scratch-off lottery tickets from the case. Pat ripped them off their perforations and laid them on the counter, then rang up my total. As I was forking over my cash, two early-twenty-something dudes got in line behind me.

Maybe it was my own fault. Pat was working out of the register on the left side of the counter. But I was standing by the register on the right, because that's where the stand-up clear-cased scratch-off display sat on the counter. The 1st Dude was all up in my hip fat. He didn't make contact. He was just inside my comfort bubble. "That's a bad habit ya got there, lady!"

Normally, I would have waxed all indignant, and told him to eff off. Like that time in the casino when a drunk frat rat pulled my crank, LITERALLY, and it was only the realization that Missouri is a death penalty state that kept me from tearing him limb from limb or a new elimination orifice. But 1st Dude was quite congenial.

He was also high as a kite.

Not that I hold it against him. He was feeling no pain thanks to whatever opioids were coursing through his bloodstream. He was like a friendly puppy. On painkillers.

"I know! I can't help myself."

"Have any luck?"

"Yesterday I had a $100 winner."

"On a five-dollar ticket?"

"Yes. It WAS a five-dollar ticket. Every number was a winner. I knew it would only be five dollars under each one, but since I didn't scratch off the amounts 'til the end, I hoped it was a big one. But still, that's nothing to complain about."

"Yeah. The five dollar tickets are the ones I always win like that. Good luck."

"Thanks."

I don't know what the dudes were buying. I think they had beer. Seems fitting. I told Mom, "Watch these two guys come out. That one was as friendly as could be. He's also as high as a kite."

"You have the most interesting things happen to you."

Aint' that the truth?

3 comments:

Sioux Roslawski said...

You should have gotten your mother to engage them in conversation. Once she finished talking about her driveway and what kind of things get left in her mailbox and the slaw shortage at the Devil's Playground--they NEVER would have gotten high again.

Kathy's Klothesline said...

You lead a charmed life!

Hillbilly Mom said...

Sioux,
She's a regular Red Chief, my mom. You don't really know what you're getting into until it's too late.

****
Kathy,
Indeed. I attract them all. So lucky.