At Home Depot I got caught off guard.
This is early in May, the pond feature John had made for me years ago wasn't gurgling water. I pulled up the pump and it was whirring but not drawing up water to spill through the overturned barrel to re-enter the pond.
Studying the boxes up high in the garden section, Home Depot's fake bird sounds tweeting loudly overhead, I was really concentrating, squinting, looking for a pond water pump.
This was the section where John had spied the black plastic liner for our pond and made the decision of which size pump to purchase. Well, they weren't there. I scoured the seasonal section up front and the neighboring aisles in the back, nothing.
When I rounded the corner at the end of the aisle where I thought such things shoud be, there was an African-American man, eyes level with the tray on a grill he was putting together. My first thought was "MIDGET!" I'd never met one in person before. Seen plenty on television but never in person.
I laughed my head off and without thinking just blurted, "I thought you were a midget!"
He laughed, too, got up off his knees, and stood up and you'd have thought I was meeting Wilt Chamberlain, that's how tall he was!!!!
He towered over me, asked me what I needed, and though we walked the aisles, and he couldn't find them either, he went inside the store and found help, then came back to tell me that they were in "Aisle #32, bin number 9." What a guy! What a laugh!
There in the outdoor garden section I had been looking up to find a pump
instead I found myself looking up to find a broad smile!
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