Many months ago, I
walked into a store and met Bob and my life has not been the same ever
since. Thanks to Bob, I find myself
looking at life these days through a pair of slow-motion spectacles where all
frantic movements have trickled down to mere frame-by-frame motion
sequences.
Bob was one of the
two sales people in that store that day.
He had a sweet smile and kind eyes so naturally I picked him over the
other salesman. Wearing an answering
smile myself, I walked towards Bob and asked to see a few products in the store. What followed was the longest 2 hours of my
life.
It is important to
mention here that I dragged my kids in to that store with me after assuring
them that I will get them both an ice cream cone as soon as we got out of there. ‘Just a few minutes’ I promised my kids. I didn’t know that Fate was holding its jiggling
tummy and laughing at me right at that moment.
Watching Bob go to
work was a revelation. I learned that Bob
did not believe in rushing things. Have
you ever watched words take a slow tumble out of someone’s mouth, letter by
letter? I did. I almost cupped my hands in front of his
mouth at one point to catch those precious words but luckily caught myself in
time.
Our conversation
mirrored a chess game between a chess master and an amateur. My mouth opened, hurled out the words and
shut itself while Bob had to think deep and hard before he would allow a word
to form in his mind. I felt tears of joy
burning at the back of my eyes every time we were treated to a full sentence. My daughters had to pinch my sides to keep
those tears under check. It has been
many months now but the fading pinch marks in my side still brings dear Bob to
my mind.
In my heart, I know
Bob meant to show us the products before Sun went down the horizon that
day. I have to believe that. He had no meanness in him, you see but
seconds stretched to an hour as Bob walked between the stock room and the sales
desk. He had such gentle movements. It was like watching a swan gracefully sway
through the room. The carpet heaved a
sigh of relief beneath his shoes each time Bob glided over its surface. Why, you ask?
He left not a single shoe mark, that’s why.
After the 8th
trip back from the stock room, Bob seemed a bit tired. Sure, who won’t? I wished the other salesman would bring Bob a
glass of water to drink. After all, he
hadn’t moved an inch in the last hour.
Standing in the same place and chatting easily with the 10 or more
customers I had seen come in to the store in that hour. It just didn’t seem fair. Sure, he sold stuff to those 10 people, but hah,
big deal! .
Glaring at his
colleague for his lack of compassion, I suggested to Bob that he take a break
to rest his legs for a while before resuming his 9th trip trying to
bring us the product we actually wanted and not the ones that he could
find. He looked at me with such
gratitude.
As the clock ticked
by and crossed 90 minutes, Bob managed to walk out at last holding what I was
looking for. If it weren’t for my
creaking knees, I would have leapt over the sales desk and kissed him in sheer
happiness. Instead I broke out the 10,000
watts smile that I usually save up just for my husband. Waking up from their naps in the corner sofa,
my kids were now looking hopefully at me.
I smiled at them reassuringly and whipped out my wallet to close the
sale and be on my way out. Not so fast,
said Bob.
Apparently computers
puzzled Bob. It was really sweet the way he looked at the
tip of his pointer finger carefully each time he used it to push in a key on
the keyboard. After each push, he would gently
lift his eyes to the screen and smile as he saw his hard work translated on the
screen. The whole thing was nothing
short of a well-choreographed waltz.
There was a rhythm and a beauty to it.
He was gentle with those keys. Every now and then, the fingers will hang
suspended in air while he would look confused at the computer screen. Fearing the wrath of my daughters who were
drilling holes in my back, I decided to step in and move things along. Gently, I scooted over to the other side,
peeked at the computer and walked Bob through the steps of running my credit
card and closing the sale. The sheer joy
on his face at the end was well worth the wait, I thought. My daughters somehow didn’t think so.
Aren’t you happy
you met Bob today? :-)
