I had a super migraine earlier this week and have been feeling the aftershocks for days. On this day, I felt my legs were going to give out on me and I had to make it until 8pm, while business was moving at a snails pace.
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| An interesting little display in the staff cafeteria, especially the little meatball skewers with spoons to dip in the dill yogurt sauce - super cute with the cucumber. Not sure about those savory waffles tho. |
So two hours before my shift ended, I just said screw it, I need to get out of here. I tell the manager and of course, he could care less because basically I'm the only one that still believes this is a real job. Retail is doing so poorly that we really have just a few people who give one or two shits about anything. That being said, I take in thousands and thousands each day for them, so from where I sit it's not dying a quick death.
I care about how I conduct myself, now. Integrity has been a goal. I decided to wait until the entire night crew showed up before I leave. I'm making my way out, I have the employee exit sign in sight! Suddenly I am stopped frantically by a young Asian girl who is standing by who I'm hoping are her grandparents looking extremely old and frail, one hunched over the other with a cane both straddling the staircase going down. But no, she tells me they stopped her and are lost and very scared. They can't find their family who they came with. And please, can I help. She needs to go but feels bad leaving them. Inside, I'm screaming Noooooo!!! while I look longingly at that exit door to freedom but on the outside I speak,
yes of course, no problem, of course. I felt it was a test from the gods that I would be given this task when mentally and emotionally I needed to be in my fuzzy pants. And God only knows what kind of nonsense I'll face to connect them to their party in this monster of a store. I've been here long enough to know this won't be easy.
They don't speak any English, so I Google Translate to please follow me to sit down in the cafe and we would find their family, not to worry. And who knows what they heard because many times online translations can go very awry. They sit but quickly get very nervous and begin randomly approaching other Asians and arguing among themselves. The woman wanted to leave but clearly this would not be a good idea as I imagine them facing the desolate winter elements outside in Red Hook wandering aimlessly on the docks if they even made it down the stairs. Security is taking for EVER to come out and the manager in charge is overwhelmed with other fires to say the least. She looks caught in headlights so I promise to delay leaving and sit with them but 20 then 30 minutes or so pass so I try to get more info from the translators that are willing to stop and help. The great thing about the Asian community is they respect their elders and really begin to form a support group, which was super moving to see. Our guard is slow to make any progress and makes lame attempts to get information. He keeps asking the same questions but not listening to the answers, preoccupied by that idiot radio connected to his ear. For the tenth time he tells his partner its an elderly couple who lost their daughters in the store! I take a second to pray we never have real security issues. God forbid I rely on these guys to combat actual threats. I try to get the phone numbers of the family members and call & text them, no answer. I get a description of the daughters and when I run to give the guard the info, he looks like he's working on getting laid from two female patrons who walked up. So I ask the manager to sit with the couple so I can try to find these missing daughters. I'm good at finding people and I have motivation in the form of my little rat's nest where I want to be.
And I do, I freaking find them within 5 minutes. They are one department over from where I found the parents. The first obvious place to look. They were super calm, tucked away, looking at closets. And when I asked if perhaps they were with two elderly people, one said no right away and the other looked at me and said, well, yes. When I said we'd been calling and looking for them, paging them, that their parents were scared and have been trying to leave by themselves, they both seemed very unconcerned and even annoyed, and that was a huge surprise. I say in a scolding tone,
your mother has a crowd of strangers worried sick. I hear them both complaining behind me as I'm now sort of dragging them to their parents like bad kids. We come up to the cafe and the crowd gives a huge sigh of relief as they recognize the women fitting the description. I hear a couple of claps and ahhhs then just as the daughter approaches her mom, her mom takes her back hand and slaps her across the cheek before going off in Mandarin. We were all pretty shocked expecting hugs of joy. I couldn't do anything but laugh as I put my hand on the shoulder of the old man and he laughed with me, relieved, seeing the humor. Everyone's mouth was sort of half opened, not knowing how to feel as they went quietly back to their seats or continued shopping. The manager was already on the phone to the next emergency and...
....I could go home! I had a bowl of this quick style white been chili with ground turkey. A little added Chopped-esque element; cubed up Polenta that tasted like little corn dumplings because it needed to be used but ended up being a really great idea.
