Like Cheers, Except Nobody Knows My Name

Business at the Gas Station Chicken Store comes in waves. There's a sudden rush around 3:00 when schools let out. Then another at 3:30 when a couple local factories end a shift. And around 4:10, when I suppose more distant factories let out, or the 3:00 batch of city commuters return to town. I know traffic off the highway backs up at the lights.

I try to plan my town trip between the busy times. On the weekend, it's not an issue. Late afternoon on the weekend there's a lull. There was only one car, at the gas pumps, when I pulled in Sunday afternoon. The guy was coming back to his vehicle after paying. You can't pay at the pump there. That's how old the gas pumps are.

Anyhoo... I drove around to the side of the building to my rightful handicap space, placard swinging from T-Hoe's mirror. I gathered my winners for cashing in, and headed inside to see my favorite cashier. She always greets me cheerfully, even though not by name. I've told her once, when she asked, but don't expect her to remember it.

"Hi! I saw you coming!"

Fave pushed a Cash-4-Life draw ticket under the plexiglass shield toward me. 

"Let's see if my other predictions were right!"

"Well. I AM pretty predictable. I bet you ARE right!"

I named off the numbers of the tickets I wanted, and she pulled them out from under the counter, already torn off from the rolls. She was EXACTLY right!

"Good job on that. But what if I went on by?"

"I thought of that, but since it wasn't crowded, I figured you'd stay."

"As long as my handicap space is open! If there's somebody parked in it, I sometimes keep driving out the alley, and go over to Casey's first. Then come back."

"I know you won't come in if it's crowed, and you'll leave if too many people come in while you're waiting. But I didn't know THAT. I would have kept them for you. You always come in."

I am predictable, and she is efficient. It works out well. Besides, she could have sold those same tickets to anybody else who asked for them later in the evening. Or set them back on the roll to sell the next day if nobody wanted them that soon.