If you go to Tops, what do you see? Food, cashiers, shoppers… but one thing that you may not see very often is an employee in his twenties, wearing a “Hello, My name is Brian” nametag, pushing past people and sprinting to the front of the grocery store. This man, Brian, is what my story is about.
It all started last summer. My mom was walking out of tops with a cartful of groceries, when an employee called to her from inside the store. “Would you like a carry out, ma’am?” said Brian in a slow, droning voice.
“No, thank you,” my mom replied. She walked out to her van, put the groceries in it, and drove home. It was a normal encounter at Tops. The next week, as my mom was taking her groceries to the van, Brain asked her again if she would like a carry out. She politely refused him again. So far, this is a perfectly normal story. But then it gets weird. For the next month, every single time my mom went to Tops, Brian would offer her a carry out, and every time my mom would refuse. I saw her come from Tops each time more and more exasperated. She would rant about how Brian KNEW that she wouldn’t want a carry out, and that he wasn’t as stupid as he made himself appear. So I decided to investigate; I went with my mom to Tops the next week to see if my mom was going crazy.
As we exited the store, my mom looked around wildly. Sure enough, Brian came up to us and asked my mom if she needed a carry out. Mom pushed past him and said in a rude voice, “No!” As we left the parking lot, I noticed plenty of other people Brain could have helped going past him; some were even old ladies.
Three encounters later, my mom ignored Brian altogether. She insisted the dull person he portrayed himself as was an act, and that he was harassing her. I didn’t buy it. Until the next week, when my outlook changed dramatically.
It was raining, and I had accompanied my mom again for entertainment. As we left the store, my mom told me to hurry up as we powerwalked away towards our van. I actually thought we had escaped him, but when we were thirty feet away from the van, a slow droning voice pierced the sound of the falling rain.
“MA’AM, WOULD YOU LIKE A CARRY OUT?” We were almost to our van, and he was at the entrance to Tops. My mom ignored him and kept pushing her cart.
“MA’AM! EXCUSE ME, MA’AM!” I turned around, laughing and slightly shocked. When he saw me turn around, he began to jog towards us.
“MA’AM! MA’AM!” My mom and I got into the car, genuinely scared, and pulled out of the parking lot. As we pulled away, it might have been all in my head, but I swear I saw him smile.
Is this man Brian really who he appears to be? Is he an innocent, slightly touched boy who works at Tops, or a perfectly intelligent man? Maybe this whole thing is a power struggle between him and my mom, and he won’t let her say no to him. I honestly don’t know what to think, but that was the last time I went to Tops with my mom.
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