Today I heard a family asking a man in a med center hospital for directions to a fast-food chicken place. He was trying to explain to the family how to weave and maneuver to get there. I kind of stopped and waved to get his attention and said in a whisper, "That place has closed."
The family walked off disappointed, and the man looked at me puzzled, "Did it close down for a few days or something?"
"No. It wasn't good," I said.
"Huh," said the man. "Is it gonna reopen soon?"
Apparently, he wasn't getting it. So I did something instictive as I described what happened. I said, "No, it was..." and made the best rat face making the "pht-pht-pht" noise simultaneously moving two fingers on each hand as if making quotes, but this time I was mimicking a scratching rat. It must have been a good performance, because he said, "OH!"
And I left with a feeling of fear that perhaps surveillance cameras monitored my performance. And also I started to wonder where in the world that rat face impression came from.
Somedays we make better first impressions than others.
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