Feeling he was on a roll, Jim pondered what to ask the twin personal trainers next when his thoughts were interrupted by a stern “Excuse me.”
“Hmm?” Jim glanced to his rear and saw a woman standing with a half-full shopping cart giving him an impatient look. What was her problem? Turning back to Ashe and Leigh, he realized the obvious answer. The three of them were taking up the width of the aisle. “Oops.”
The shopper, a pudgy pants-suited woman somewhere in middle-age, sighed in annoyance. Jim could understand that to an extent, given that he had stopped to chat with, and change, the twins in the middle of a busy Wal-Mart. But there were certainly more polite ways to express it.
But perhaps he could have a little fun with improving her attitude.
“Say, can you two wait a minute?” Jim asked the twins. “I have some questions for her, too.”
“Yeah, sure,” Ashe and Leigh spoke in twin unison and stepped aside.
The grumpy newcomer didn’t seem enthused by Jim’s suggestion of ‘questions’. “Sorry, but I don’t have…”
“You have time if I ask you a few things, do you?” Jim asked.
“...Yes, of course.” Though the woman’s tone remained grumpy, she was no longer in an apparent hurry to move on. “Questions about what?”
“Oh, I’m just working on a basic survey,” Jim said. “Now, let’s see…” Thinking of what questions to start with, he gave the woman a closer look. About average height, and wearing light makeup in addition to a simple, professional pantsuit, she could have been anything from an office worker, to a lawyer, to a school teacher. “So to start with, can you tell me your name?”
“Caroline,” the woman said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Jim nodded. “OK, Caroline. Now, how old are you?”
“I’m forty-five.”
“I see,” Jim said. With that basic information acquired, he started to plumb deeper. “Now…oh, can I guess your profession?”
“Sure,” Caroline shrugged.
“Hmm…” Jim stroked his chin. “You’re a…maid, aren’t you?”
Caroline blinked in surprise. “I…how’d you know?”
Jim flashed a wry smile. “I suppose it makes it easy when you wear your uniform everywhere, doesn’t it?”
“Oh…right…” Caroline gave Jim a sheepish look as her pantsuit stretched and warped around her body into a black maid’s dress with a long, ankle-length skirt and a frilly white apron tied at the waist as a similarly frilled hairband appeared atop her head of short, neatly trimmed brunette locks. “Silly question, I guess.”
“There’s no such thing as a silly question,” Jim said. “And besides, it’s all just a part of my survey.”
“Of course.” Caroline couldn’t disagree.
Jim pondered what to ask next. Caroline was now a maid by profession, but her uniform was rather plain, as was the rest of her.
Sat Sep 07 12:35:55 2024
1 comment Last updated: Sat Sep 7 12:58:01 2024