lethargicObviously, very obviously, something had gone awry here. “That’s too much,” I immediately pointed out. The man stood there, smirked at me, and said, “Oh, you think that’s too much?” He made no move whatsoever to review my order or do anything else. We seemed to be in a stare-down. “Yeah,” I said, “a filet-o-fish, drink, and 2 apple pies does not cost $12.24.” Still, he stood there smirking, making no move to recheck his figures. As luck would have it, someone who looked like a manager was standing nearby behind the counter. I called out to him and he came over to the register. I told him what I had ordered and he punched some keys on the register. A new total came up, at about 1/4 of the original total. I paid my money and went on my way.
So what the french fry was going on there? I suppose there’s a slight possibility that he wanted to see if I was a near-catatonic, hung-over idiot who would hand over whatever sum of money was asked of him. I have to believe, though, that the more likely scenario is that it was my server who could be described in those terms. My speculation is that he was not at all thinking about what I had ordered. All he was thinking was that I was complaining about McDonald’s prices, and the smirk was his way of telling me that he had no sympathy for my plight.
I’ll say this much – I was on my way to a rehearsal and was in danger of running late, on top of which I was not yet fully awake. But Mr. McSmirk is taking 100% of the blame for this one. I guess I could say that I’m used to people who are a little clueless, but it’s not often I have to deal directly with someone so hard-core, willfully clueless.
