Value Meal

...so I'm in Burger King's drive-thru with Josh, and Maddie (my son and dog respectively-see previous posts). The voice in the speaker says "that'll be $9.59, pull around to the first window." The cashier inside the first window was a young man-probably 20 years old or so. He was very overweight, spoke with a prominent lisp and slight speech impediment. There was some degree of disability-he had probably been a "special ed" student. Maddie had her nose sticking out the car window and was enthusiastically anticipating her Whopper Jr. The young man engaged us about the dog. "Was it a Lab? It looks like it has some Lab in it." He told us about his parents Beagle, what colors it was, the nicknames they had for it, and on and on. I was conscious of the car behind us, and frankly thought we'd talked enough about the dog, so I said thanks, and pulled forward toward the second window for the food. I looked at Josh, expecting to share some mocking remark or an imitation. Josh said, "I just love people like that. They're so friendly and nobody pays attention to them. And it's a lot nicer than the crabby people who are usually at drive-thrus." Once again, who's teaching whom?

jls