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"Crap! Sorry about that." I turned after bumping into another shopper, and poked my head into the display and started to right them. The other shopper followed in. "Here, let me help you. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm always such a mess around Christmas time. I'm usually shopping on the 25th. Oh! Look! This is it. It's perfect!"
"I like it too," the gentleman, who was obviously not another shopper said, bending down to right the last ornament.
"I'm so sorry about this," I said again as I looked at the mess I'd made. "I've really messed up. But, thank you so much for helping me. Here, let me take some things for you."
He took some decorations and stood. "It's no problem."
"Great! Come back on the 25th and it'll all be fixed."
"I'll be sure to make it up to you."
"Thanks."
The man turned and walked away. I started to straighten out the other crap that was on the floor as well. I grabbed a few more things and really made a mess on the floor. I looked to the front of the store and found he had disappeared.
"Ah, that must be him. There he is. Excuse me sir, but I think you must have lost this in the scuffle," I said as I held out a quarter down near his feet.
The man had an embarrassed look on his face. "No, I must have dropped it somewhere else."
"It's okay, I'll hang onto it just in case I find it somewhere in here."
"I have some bad karma with money and coins. I'm sure it'll find its way back to me in a few days."
"Oh," I said as I put his quarter into my purse.
"Never know when it might come in handy," he said with a chuckle.
"That's for sure," I said as I pulled out my wallet. "I think I can let you off the hook for this one. If it turns up in my purse, I'll get another quarter to replace it."
"Thank you very much. Here," he said as he handed me a quarter.
I looked down and saw it was an Eric cent. "Wow, an Eric cent! How do you even get one of those?"
"They're pretty rare. There's only one for each year," he said as he turned and walked away. "Have a good holiday."
I watched as he walked away until he disappeared around the corner. I finished organizing the store. I took a few more things and walked around looking for more stuff to take. I found a really nice set of sleigh bells that looked like they were made out of a pumpkin. I did a quick Google search just to make sure. Sure enough, they were.
"Thanks anyway!" I called out as I left. I turned to go back to the counter and saw a guy standing behind me. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm already done. I'm just waiting for my cart. I can come back later. Thanks."
He turned and started to walk towards the door. I felt guilty as I grabbed a few more things and walked out to the car. I loaded up the car and my purse with all of the new goodies and headed home. I dumped out the contents of my purse and found a coin. I grabbed it and used my phone to verify that it was an Eric coin.
Just as I was headed for the door, I spotted another coin on the ground. I bent down to pick it up and noticed that it was a silver dime. I thought of the guy and I slipped it into my pocket. I looked around for a moment and saw another dime.
I bent down and picked that one up and put it in my pocket too. I grabbed a quarter from my wallet and put it into my pocket as well. I then took two quarters from my purse and put them in my pocket as well.
I grabbed my phone and got out the map to see if I could find where these coins had come from. I found out they were from different locations in my immediate area. I already had a really bad feeling about this.
I got out my credit cards and tried to swipe them. I couldn't. "Damn it," I said. I then tried to swipe them through the store's payment terminal. A small device in the store kept rejecting my attempts to swipe my cards. I looked around for the store manager but didn't see him.
"Someone out front, is there a store manager?" I asked a customer.
"I heard of one," she said.
I walked out to the front desk and tried my luck there. The same thing happened.
"Someone get the store manager. I've had a really bad day and I just want to get home. I need to get my money back fast."
"I'm the manager," a man said as he came around the corner.
"What? Oh, I've seen you before. Yeah, you're the only one I've seen."
"I'm sorry. We're pretty small and I try to be everywhere at once. How can I help you?"
"I need to get my money back. I need to leave and I need to do it right now. I didn't mean what I said. I'm sorry. I just want to get home."
"Well, it seems your experience has been a train wreck. If I gave you a refund now, you wouldn't be able to use your cards to pay for it anyway," he said, just as I was opening my mouth to correct him. "Tell you what. I can take care of your total right now so you can just pick up your things and go."
"Thanks," I said.
"No problem," he said as he tapped away at his keyboard. "You came in to buy decorations, right?"
"Yes. So sorry about that. It was my first Christmas in the house and I was so excited."
"You did get a lot of decorations," he said as he looked at the transaction. "In fact, you bought a bit too much. You might have a few trouble spots."
"What kind of trouble? What am I going to do?"
"Well, there's a tree. It's about eight feet tall and you bought a regular dwarf tree as well as a super dwarf tree and another tree."
"Yeah, I was thinking I might get a second tree. Do you think I can do that?"
"I think you'll need to get it here though. Most places will only deliver a six to eight foot tree and you've bought a nineteen footer. We'll have to tote it here and bring in a truck. I can call a tree delivery right now."
"Oh, that's easy for you. Everyone else is going to have to either wait or get it home by themselves. I can do it."
"Take it back home," he said with a laugh.
"I will when I've shopped everything around here. I don't have much to take back. I didn't bring much anyway. I just need things for now. It will leave me more room for later."
"You're the owner of the store, correct? Can't you leave the decorations for later?"
"I'd have to prepay for them and hold them for the 25th if I did that. I work from home and I often don't make it into the store after the restocking process." I watched him write something. "So, would I be able to get my money back as soon as possible?"
"It seems a bit odd that you found so many Eric coins all in one day, let alone in the same area, but okay.
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