Roberto was heavy eyed and yearning  for a coffee.  He had about five minutes of extra time to run into 7/11 and grab a coffee before he got on the highway headed for work.  He whipped his navy blue Subaru Outback into a parking space and noticed a long line with one cashier as he opened the brown steel and glass doors. He was instantly nauseated by the pungent scent of hot dogs; which to him, was too much to handle at 7am on a hot August morning.  He looked at the only cashier, a lanky teenage dark skinned black boy with an old school box haircut , who had to wait on a long line of straight faced, tired people that fed into the candy isle.  “Fuck it, I don’t care if I’m late.  I need coffee”, he thought to himself.  He rushed over to the coffee pots and grabbed a 16 oz gold paper coffee cup.  He welcomed the nutty aroma of the coffee as the steam crawled up his nose.  He instinctively swung his navy blue tie around his left shoulder as he poured his coffee.  He then walked to the back of the candy isle to join the line.  “OK, there are only about 6 people in front of me.  God, hurry the hell up people”, he thought to himself.

Just then, he heard a young woman’s voice pleading, ” Ma’m, sir, excuse me… Ma’m…” .  Roberto turned around and noticed a middle-aged light skinned (“Or was she maybe Puerto Rican?”, Robert wondered to himself) black woman directly behind him turning back to look at a teenage Asian girl.  The young Asian girl, who was a petite girl dressed in a McDonald’s uniform, was holding a bottle of anti-freeze in her hands and addressed both the woman directly in front of her and Roberto with an urgent tone, “Can I please cut in front of you if you are not in a hurry? I am going to be late for work!”  She raised her eyebrows and rocked her  hips back and forth as she spoke.  The middle aged woman in front of her put her hand on her hip, scowled her eyebrows and shouted “Like we all don’t have someplace to go!” She then looked at Roberto and said, “I guess some of us have all day to stand in this damn line because we have nothing better to do!”  Roberto noticed the panic on the young girl’s face.  She was flushed and holding the heavy anti-freeze bottle in one hand and and wiping the long bangs from her eyes that fell out of her pony tail with the other.  “I really don’t mind”, said Robert, shrugging his shoulders while looking at the woman behind him.  “Well I do mind! I am not letting people jump in line! Maybe I am running late.  Did you think about that? Probably not because you are only concerned with miss little cute thing here!”, exclaimed the middle aged woman.  “Relax”, said Robert as he waved his flat palm up and down.  “I was just trying to help her out”. “Well, why don’t you help me out.  Where she has to be is more important that where I have to be?’, asked the woman, with her brown eyes wide open, searing Roberto’s face.  “if I’m late I will get fired!”, commanded the girl.  “Well maybe your ass should get up and leave earlier in the morning! How about that?”  snarled the woman, before she sucked her straight white teeth.  “My God, what will it take, a minute for her to pay for that bottle?”, asked Robert, as he squinted his eyes, speaking to the woman.  “No, it will probably take about an extra hour!  This damn cashier they have working here is so damn stupid! He probably can’t even count to ten and they have him working here by himself!”

At that moment, another cashier appeared behind the counter.  “Next in line!” shouted the cashier.  Robert noticed that he was next.  He turned to the girl and pointed to the cashier and said “Go ahead, you go”.  The girl frantically ran up to the counter and slammed the anti-freeze on the counter.  “That ain’t fair!”, yelled the woman.  “No worries, this fine young man that has been efficiently handling the register since we got here will have us out in no time”, said Roberto, as he smirked and winked at the young black man.  As Roberto was inserting his debit card into the register, the young girl nudged his sleeve as she was scurrying out and said “Thank you!”  She then looked at the woman who was standing behind Roberto and said, “Karma is going to be good to everyone today!”  Roberto smiled at the young black man, as he took his receipt and said, “Well, some of us will have a great day!”  “Yea”, said the young man, smiling and nodding his head.  “Some of us!”

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