Yes. Mrs. HM saw a rare unicorn on Monday! Not to be confused with a common unicorn! Or a special unicorn. Which is another thing entirely.
Anyhoo... the Rare Unicorn made his appearance at the Gas Station Chicken Store. I swear, if you park there and wait long enough, every kind of critter and person in the world would pass by.
I had just paid for my magical elixir and scratchers. Had to spend paper! Not cardboard! I had no winners from the day before to cash in. I was bidding my goodbye to Man Owner on my way out the door, when the Rare Unicorn came after me!
"Ma'am? Ma'am? Did you forget your straw?"
Indeed, the Rare Unicorn was holding a straw in a white paper wrapper. Extending it to me in a gesture of good will and looking-out-for-ness that is virtually nonexistent these days. I'd seen that straw on the glass counter when I bellied up to the lottery section. Not mine. I never take a straw. I have straws at home. It's just one more item to juggle with my 44 oz Diet Coke and scratchers and T-Hoe keys. I can't unwrap it and put the straw down through the lid, because our gravel road is so bumpy that some of my magical elixir magically escapes the cup!
"Oh, no. That's not mine. It was on the counter. I have straws at home. But thank you for asking."
The Rare Unicorn was on the cusp. Teen-twenty. A stringbean with black hair, wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt, managing to look tailored in them. Such a polite young man.
Between this Rare Unicorn, and the FREE AIR Tire Pumper, I might need to start carrying smelling salts... Politeness these days is such a shock to the system.
My goodness. If he had held the door for you, or called you "Miss" instead of "Ma'am," I would have needed the smelling salts, just from reading your account.
ReplyDeleteTruth is stranger than fiction, right?
Wow, a rare unicorn. And polite too. His mother must be very proud.
ReplyDeleteSioux,
ReplyDeleteIf he'd already paid, I'm sure he would have held the door! Too bad there wasn't a puddle on the parking lot, so he could take off his t-shirt and lay it down for me to walk on. THAT would have required a call to the network news!
***
River,
I'M very proud, and I'm not even related. I guess it's a teacher thing. We like to share in successes.