pharmacy line

I was waiting for my prescriptions at the pharmacy earlier today (that is an entire blog unto itself, but we're not going there), settling down for my "15 to 20 minute wait", looking around for something, anything to read, and thinking that "15 to 20 minutes" can be amazingly short (like when the alarm goes off in the morning and you hit snooze for 15 minutes) and also astonishingly long (like when you are sitting in a Walgreens waiting for your prescriptions). How is that? How can the same amount of time feel like an eternity one day and then the next feel as though only seconds have passed?



Anyway... I was sitting there, waiting, watching the close circuit TV behind the desk so I could see any action happening in the store behind me. When a woman pushing a shopping cart pulled up to the counter with her little boy, who must have been around 18 months or maybe 2 years old. And as soon as she stopped the cart, the little boy looked at the pharmacist behind the counter (who was on the phone) and yelled, YELLED, "HI!". Big smile, big HI. Adorable. Except the pharmacisit was on the phone and couldn't respond. So the boy leaned out of the cart and towards the counter, pushed it up a few decibles, and yelled (still very cheery) "HI!". Still no response so he just went for it and let out a stream of "HI HI HI HI HI" until his mother shushed him and he just sat there and smiled.... looking around wide eyed and all happy, smiling this beaming smile. Absolutely unruffled by this world, and that pharmacist, or being shushed. A woman walked up behind mother and child to stand in line and he took one look at her and said (yep, you guessed it) "HI!". Without hesitation the woman in line responded, at the same decibel level and with the same perkiness "HI!". Great results, he beamed and looked around, looking for his next target. While he was putting his radar out there the mother of this young spunky maitre d to be had gotten the attention of the pharmacist and was told she would have to come back in "15 to 20 minutes". As she whirled the cart around the boy had locked me in his sights and wouldn't be distracted. THe cart turned, his head steered away from me and then he swung his head around again to find me... and as they were wheeling by me, he tossed out a big "HI!" for me. I responded with a big "HI!" and he was gone. Life continued there at the pharmacy waiting area. Another woman came in and sat down and I watched people going by in the close circuit security camera until woman and child returned to the counter again. As she was completing her transaction the boy looked around and saw that there was a fresh face in the waiting area and he beamed a "HI!" at the new woman sitting there and without hesitation she yelled back a big "HI!"..... and then he was gone. And we just sat there, no one talking , no eye contact. Just a few people sitting and waiting for our prescriptions. But having been greeted and responded with loud exuberant HI's. No one failed to respond to this little guy with anything other than a big HI. And everyone was just as loud and happy back to him.... even though we all returned to our fairly sedate state of waiting after the exchange.



For some reason I just found this incredibly touching and adorable and funny. And not just the little boy. Amazing how when we are confronted by innocent cheeriness we step up to it.....