Usually it’s a bit of a given that by 7pm work’s dead and it was again this evening until it got a little busier. I was hoping it would be empty by 7:30 so I could start cleaning early etc but alas no, for one little chav.
I say chav but that seems a little unfair to be honest. He was in a tracksuit, looked about 14, didn’t seem to know too much about anything. Does that make him a chav? Anyway, he asked first if he could use the loo, fine no problem and for a glass of water, again no problem. Then he asked how old you had to be to work here , 18 I said, he claimed to be 16. Whether he was made little difference but he was trying to find out why he had to be 18, it was weird I half expected him to tell me he was 18 after 5 minutes of me telling him why.
After he had apparently accepted my reasoning he said could I not just help out around here and started to say how bored he was, so he started organising the muffins in the basket, stacking the same type on top of one another. Then he started trying to convince me that some of the stuff was out of date in a slightly surreal way, holding his finger over parts of the sell by date etc
Following that he started to quiz me on whether I’d be able to tell if someone pinched something from the counter by asking me what he’d taken. Funnily enough by this point I was starting to think that he was genuinely trying to nick some stuff and so I knew exactly what was out. Following that and just before 8pm when we close he told me how he could cheat at chess, by making someone look away and rearrange the whole board. Now I’m by no means brilliant at chess, not even ok but I think I’d notice someone changing the board like that, he said he wouldn’t though, that he was too dumb to.
Now this evening, I’ve been feeling rather sorry for him, I didn’t even get his name, I wish I had as prayers seem more powerful with a name. I can’t help but think in some way he has been neglected either at school or by his parents and that now he’s getting out of compulsory education that there’s not a lot on the horizon.
It’s sad and I hope I’ve got the wrong end of the stick but when I spoke to Kita earlier she said were his mates at the front door, nope, not too sure he had any mates.
Dan
**edit**
I forgot to mention, come locking the door, as far as I could tell nothing was missing.
16th April 2008
10:34 pm
I wonder if he just wanted something to do, and was also rather hoping for a job. It must be grim living in a town full of bright students, realising that you haven’t got the abilities to progress, and that dole and a council flat may be the best you can hope for.