Everyday Guys

DAY 9: EVERYDAY GUYS

As a redemption for last night’s rant, I thought I would share instead two very nice, simple stories of people who are the polar opposite of Jerkyface.  I don’t have much time tonight – activities overlapping with the girls – but I wanted to put us back on the good karma track.  Just two short stories - these are not intended to be WOW stories.  It would be fun if every kind gesture had Disney Movie potential, but what I want to point out is that just being the everyday nice guy is good enough.  Just being the everyday nice guy, in fact, is great. 

First is the guy at Barnes and Noble.  During the summer, we go for walks at Derby Street nearly every night.  Coleman loves to go out.  As Spring approaches and activities wind down, we start to get out a bit more, and then, with the onset of summer, when days become far less structured and Coleman’s idle time weighs on him by day’s end, it’s practically mandatory that we go out for our nightly trips.  And Derby Street is usually top of the list.  To be fair, Coleman will go almost anywhere, he just wants to go out.  But Derby Street is close and it’s a nice place to walk so it’s usually my go-to place.  He also likes CVS, Rite Aid, and TCBY.  Exciting right?  Each night Coleman eagerly asks “How about we go…”, and we fill in the blank with one of the aforementioned fabulous places he likes to go.  “How about we go to the Book Store?!” I say with so much enthusiasm you would think the Book Store is Disney.  And Coleman is all in.  “YES!” he yells and runs to grab his guys.  Our time in Barnes and Noble is very short, under 10 minutes.  And we do exactly the same thing every time:  we go straight to the DVD section to look at DVD covers.  Coleman loves the collection of Nick Jr videos – they are set together behind a small sign of the Backyardigans that says “Nick Jr”.  He finds the sign, and then looks behind it for the DVDs, picking them up, looking at them, and then returning them to their spot.  Once he is goes through them all, we leave.  Very easy.    The same guy was nearly always working when we were there, and finally after a couple of weeks, he joked  “Well since you are going to be here as much as I am, we should at least know each others names, don’t you think?”  He was talking to Coleman who barely even looked up.  I introduced Coleman, and from that day on the guy greeted us with a boisterous “Hi Coleman!! How are you today?”  One night we went in but the sign for the Nick Jr section was gone.  Coleman was confused, kept asking for it, but I just kept saying they must have moved it.  And then our friend comes over to us, with the sign, and says to Coleman “Hey I found your sign!  They moved those DVDs over here.  Follow me!” and he happily led him to where the DVDs were now located.  As when we left each night, the friendly employee would say “Have a great night Coleman!”  There wasn’t anything spectacular about this guy.  Just a regular Joe.  But he was kind, he wasn’t afraid of Coleman or intimidated by him.  He talked to him instead of ignoring him. 

Another nice guy was the businessman at Starbucks.  I had Coleman with me when we stopped in for a quick coffee.   I’m a Dunkin girl, but was really in the mood for a Caramel Latte.  Coleman, as usual, had his waffle, his juice cup, and two of his guys.  We walked in, and he went directly to the first table he saw and planted all of his belongings on the table, then went to work setting up his guys perfectly on the edge of the table.  Problem was, there was a gentleman in a nice suit with a newspaper already sitting at that table.  I went over to Coleman “No, Coley,not here…” but before I could finish, the man waved me off, mouthing silently “He’s fine.”  I gave him a questioning look.  “You sure?” I mouthed back, and then the nod of approval.  So I left him there, a few feet behind me and went up and ordered my coffee.  I could hear Coleman perfectly – talking through portions of a Backyardigans episode – and after he had his guys where he wanted them, he looked at the man and said “What’s your name?” This is something Coleman started doing around a year ago, and it has progressed and he actually says it quiet often now. If he is ‘present’ and not scripting, he will ask it.  If he is in his scripting world, he will not.  The man looked up at him and said “John.”  Coleman leaned in close to his guys until he was about an inch from their tiny faces and in his best guy voice said “HI JOHN!” as if it was coming from the guys.   “I like the capes” John said, referring to the capes on his guys.  Coleman leaned into his guys again and repeated in his guy voice “I LIKE THE CAPES!”   Now the man put his paper down, and was just smiling watching Coleman.  He asked “Are you going to eat your waffle?”  Coleman didn’t look up, remained leaning into his guys and repeated “ARE YOU GOING TO EAT YOUR WAFFLE?”  A few more exchanges, all in which Coleman repeated exactly what  John had said.  My coffee was ready and I came over to them and told Coleman it was time to go.  They guy was just smiling at Coleman, pure enjoyment on his face.  I smiled and said “Thank you for this. Have a nice day.”  Coleman picked up his juice, his waffle, and his guys and as he walked away he repeated again in his guy voice “THANK YOUFOR THIS HAVE A NICE DAY!”  I looked back and the guy was laughing, picking his newspaper back up again to read. 

Two short stories, two nice guys, one happy boy.