Sunday, May 3, 2015

The Problem with the Security Guard

A number of years ago, I had a roommate. We took turns running bills to be paid...etc...although we did split all down the middle. Now at this point in time, I worked an odd shift (4:00pm-4:30am) and my roommate worked evening shift (4pm-midnight). I had more days off than she and we were both night owls. This means that bill paying, most of the time, was done at dropboxes in the middle of the night. 
On the night in question, I was off work, my roommate was working until her usual time and we had pizza and a movie planned when she got home. The power bill was on the table and I decided, before she got home, I would take it to Duke Power and drop it in the dropbox. I got the bill and payment and headed out the door. She was usually home by 12:30 but she was picking up the pizza so I left out sometime around midnight. Greenville is a smallish town but even in the smallest of towns, traveling after dark can be a little scary. I always circled the parking lot and made sure I saw no one around before I'd get out of the car. I saw the security guard standing to the side of the door, in a large glass window--there was one on either side of the main door--so I felt a little safer getting out of my car. Now, I am a somewhat shy person, even more so then than now. The guard just stood there as I approached--me not making eye contact. He just stood there staring, not moving. I threw him a quick wave and he still didn't respond. I dropped the bill in the box and again waved but he still just stood there staring. I wanted to look him straight in the eye and give him a dirty look, he was being so rude, but I didn't, I scurried back to my car and left. 
I got home and shortly after, so did my roommate. We ate a couple of slices while I told her about the very rude, unfriendly security guard at Duke Power. She couldn't believe he was so rude either, so, we decided to drive back up there, in her car, and she would march right up to the door and wave at him while looking him in the eye. If he ignored her, she was going to tell him off through the door. We went back up there and I decided I was walking up with her. We parked and started towards the door...and he was still standing there. However as we got closer, we both cracked up laughing. The "security guard" was actually a cardboard cut out of the maytag repair man they had placed in that window. We got back in the car but we're laughing so hard it took a few minutes for us to get it under control and go back home to cold pizza and a movie. We never did tell him off!