Through a Glass, Darkly

On Thursday night after class, I had to go pick up some coolant from Advance Auto Parts. While I was there, a man behind the counter said a bad word and then looked at me and said, “Sorry, ma’am.” I said, “That’s okay, I work in a school.” The other man behind the counter helped me find what I needed and then, as he was ringing me up, the first man said, “You work in a school? What kind of school?” I told him that I work as a librarian in a middle school. I swear to you that the tough auto parts guy looked at me with a great amount of respect in his eyes. He was almost awed. At all five feet two inches of me.

“Middle school?” he said. “You have heard it all.”

If you ever need to intimidate the auto parts guy, I recommend bringing along a middle schooler. Two or three would be even better.