Going to the grocery store for organic cucumbers should be boring.
But this time was different.
After grabbing my perfectly grown, locally sourced, and humanely treated organic cucumbers, I walked up to the checkout line. I gently laid down my produce like newborn baby, and the cashier and I shared a sliver of small talk as he rang me up. “That’s it?” he asked matter of factly.
“Yup,” I said, taking out my case-less iPhone to pay.
The cashier’s eyes seem to brighten and said, “Oh, that’s a beautiful case. That’s a case, right?”
“No, it doesn’t have a case,” I said with a confused look on my face.
The payment was processing, and I held my phone above the small counter between the cashier and me, looking at some notifications on my screen.
“That’s a beautiful case,” he repeated and reached for my phone.
“It doesn’t have one,” I said, pulling it just out of his reach.
He tried to pet my phone again. Up and down, his fingers went, as they stretched toward my device.
Pulling away, I looked at him, baffled.
The payment processed, and he handed me my receipt.
“Have a good one,” I said and quickly turned for the door.
Walking out the door into the fresh New York spring air, I breathed a sigh of relief having escaped only shaken but still standing.
As I walked home, I started thinking to myself, “When did my phone become like a limb or a private part that I couldn’t let a stranger touch it?” Then I thought, “What dude tries to touch a customer’s phone while working as a cashier?”
Only in New York City…
I have the same aversion. if I’m showing someone a picture on my phone, or taking someone’s number and they reach for my phone, I sense a flicker of protective adrenaline seep into my veins. “Fight or flight!!!”, it screams, or at least, “pull the phone away!!”.
For me, it started when I heard that people’s cell phones contain higher levels of fecal bacteria than a toilet. And it’s not that I was suddenly worried that someone might become violently ill from touching my possibly-filthy phone…oh, no. It was a sudden awareness of how infrequently people must wash their hands for such a statistic to exist.
You’re a very good writer, John Pa! 🙂
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Ha! Yes, guard you phone with your lives. Thank you for reading and your kind words. I appreciate you, Kitttredge
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