The Karen

"Excuse me, miss! I want that copy and he won't let me have it! Isn't he supposed to let the customer get it?" said a woman in a obnoxious tone.

I turned to see who the loud voice was talking about.

A woman with a bright pink shirt, lime-green skirt and mismatching socks glared at me resentfully, pouting as she put her hands on her hips. She waited impatiently as if expecting everyone to jump on her command.

The employee stocking the shelf  behind me turned to me with a confused look on her face, her hands full with a carton of books as the angry woman berated me, pointing accusingly at me.

I shrugged at her, just as confused. This woman hadn’t said one word to me. Had I not turned around I probably wouldn’t even have noticed her. Well, maybe I would have, but not for any flattering reasons.

"Umm. Ma'am? This young man is just a customer. He's not one of our employees. Would you like me to get one of our books?” asked the employee, shifting the box in her hands.

"You young people think you can have anything you like and feel so entitled! I guess no one ever told you that you should respect your elders! You should be ashamed of yourself! Taking advantage of others!" continued the woman, ignoring the employee. “Whatever, just give me that book!” she stated pompously.

I raised an eyebrow, as I glanced at the cover of the book I had just picked up. "I’m guessing that you didn’t even read the title of the book, huh?” I asked, wondering why she was so upset.

“I don’t care! I’m a paying customer and I want that book!” she demanded, as she reached for the book.

“Yeah? Well, there are more copies on the top shelf. Help yourself,” I invited, holding the book I was holding out of her reach. It wasn’t like I was particularly attached to this copy, but her attitude really rubbed me the wrong way.

“Don’t tell me what to do! I want that book now!!!” she roared, jumping for the book in my hand. I continued to hold it out of reach.

People started glancing our way, wondering what the commotion was all about while others glared, bothered by the fact that the woman was making so much noise when all they wanted to do was read. I spotted her co-worker in the far corner, shaking his head and he rolled his eyes at the spectacle.

“Ma’am, I can just check in the back to see if we have any more copies in stock if you really want one,” said the employee as she tried to calm down the irate woman.

“No. I want that one and I want it now!”

Obviously, the woman had left any reasoning skills behind when she came to the bookstore, so I went ahead, looked around the empty spot left when I picked up my copy, and reached for the book on the top shelf and offered it to her. “There’s an extra one here. There is no need to argue over this one copy.”

The lady turned looked about ready to explode as she turned red with rage.

“No! That one!!!” she yelled with a vein bulging in her forehead. Her anger seemed to have reduced her speech pattern to that of a 3-year-old.

“Sir... please… do you mind giving the lady that copy?” pleaded the employee, as she tiredly set down the box of books she had been organizing on the shelves.

I felt bad for her. I had worked a short stint in retail and knew that employees really had to deal with a lot of jerks who tried to scam them and take out their frustrations on them. It really wasn’t the poor employee’s fault that this woman had shown up to cause such a scene, but it was a matter of principle now. How could I give in to this lady’s childish tantrum and enable her to keep doing it in the future?

“I’m sorry, but I really think I want this book now. Would you mind ringing me up?” I asked the employee politely.

“Um. O-Okay,” she stuttered nervously, glancing sideways at the woman.

“Nooo! That book is mine!!!” screamed the woman frantically, lunging for me as I started to walk to the counter.

Expecting this sort of reaction, I quickly sidestepped her. The woman, having lost her balance as she overstepped, crashed into the counter with a loud crash, falling down as merchandise clattered down around her. If her roaring before hadn’t disturbed anyone’s reading, this sure would.

Immediately, I dropped the book and offered her a hand. I hadn’t meant for her to fall. I had just been trying to avoid her. She gaped at me for a few seconds, stunned, as she gathered her bearings. Then, spotting the book on the ground, she stretched out and snatched it up, hugging it to her chest with a murderous glare at me.

I pulled my hand back after a few seconds, figuring she wasn’t going to accept any help at this point. “Ooookay. I guess you can keep it.” This lady was seeming more and more like a psychopath.

“Ma’am,” I said addressing the employee, “I apologize for the mess and commotion here. I think I’ll take my leave before things escalate any further. Do you need any compensation or help here?”

“No, no. Just leaving… maybe that would be for the best,” said the employee in shock. I heard other customers starting to approach, murmuring and asking each other what was going on.

I carefully stepped around the mess of books and walked out of the bookstore. I shook my head incredulously. Had that really just happened?

Inside the store, the employee finally accepted the woman’s credit card payment as her co-worker picked up the fallen books. The obnoxious woman smiled gleefully as she paid for her new copy of ‘How to Put Others First’.