Phil Perkins · Photography

Earlier, I stopped in at a nearby grocery store to shop for ingredients to make my world famous spaghetti. Well, it’s really only known locally – so, small world famous? Hmm… Whatever the case, Sriracha Sauce continues to be unavailable in the area. Oh, and I purchased some lottery tickets.

As usual, I was second in line at the customer service counter, waiting behind an elderly woman going through the process of returning an item. Apparently, there were complications, and, once concluded, she forgot to take her bag. Fortunately, there were no coupons or checkbooks involved, so the wait wasn’t too long.

Of course, I’d like to win the lottery, but I was also there to make change. So, I purchased $5 worth of tickets and handed the cashier a $20 bill. She printed the tickets, put my money into the cash register, closed the drawer and handed me a $5 bill as change.

“Hey, I gave you $20. You owe me $15”. She shot me a suspicious glance, as if questioning whether or not I was trying to pull the wool over her eyes, then reopened the register to remark, “Oh, you’re right. I accidentally put your $20 bill into the $10 slot”. We chuckled and I smiled, until she put another $5 bill on the counter, adding “Here you are. Sorry about that”.

I said, “Hey, hey, that’s only $10, now…you still owe me another $5″. Momentarily dumbfounded, she added another $5 to the mix and, finally, we were square. As I turned to begin shopping, I thought to myself…

the third time is the charm!

Geez.