In The Line Of Corn

Just this other day, I was waiting in queue for a bag of cheesy popcorn at a beefy price. I had this seemingly distinguished gentleman in front of me. He had a hoarse voice, when he conveyed, probably to his child over the phone to not wait up for dinner, as he was catching up with a friend. Now, I had observed nearly a minute ago, that a lady-voice called out for a cup of coffee, on her way to the rest-rooms. And he had responded. After pondering the obvious (My goodness, what have we come to), I gave it up, thinking it was none of my business.

A little background. The counter was large, adequate for two queues, yet there was one. There were three people waiting for their precious corn. The gentleman in front, ordering, then me and I had observed another dude had arrived behind me.

“There is a line, Sir”, the gentleman said, to this other dude who had mistaken (I hope) the vacant space at the counter to be for his kingly benefit. “Nothing comes without wait, dude”, I thought. Any which way, the dude obliged and joined the three of us, at the back.

Moments later, an elderly gentleman arrived in a hurry with a 50-buck note, occupied the same space, conspicuously glowing with absence of mankind at the counter and shrieked for a large popcorn packet.

“Excuse me, there's a line”, I said as I gestured towards the four of us, all of whom looked at the gentleman, with a mildly-forgiving smile.

“But there's..”, he said as he now gestured towards the vacant space.

“Yes, but we've been waiting, Sir”. I think he mistook my 'Sir' to be either sarcastic or contemptuous.

“Well, then take it”, he retorted, coming as quite a surprise to me, I recall. He patted me hard on the back, as if condescendingly appreciating my quest for order. Pun intended, by the way. And he marched off.

“The gentleman seems to be having an ego problem”, the gentleman in front of me remarked. I nodded sideways, agreeing and contemplating at the same time.

“Yeah. But this is the attitude we've got to take if this country is going to change”, I remarked in a way foreign to me before.

“Cheers”, he nodded, as he picked up his corn and beverage and walked off.

Thank you, unknown gentleman. Couldn't have done it without you.