One finger too far

In town this afternoon, I called into a large general store to buy some Lockets. Got to the front of the queue and the guy behind the counter called me forward.

 

Me: “have you got any honey and lemon Lockets please?”

 

Him: he points, presumably giving  some direction for me to get them.

 

Me: “I’m blind, I’ll need you to get them for me please”

 

He comes round from behind the counter, taps me on the shoulder and then gets in front of me with his hand waving in my face.

 

Him: “How many fingers am I holding up?”

 

Me: “Fuck off. I’m not playing that game. How fucking dare you do that.”

 

He goes back around the counter. I pay with my card.

 

Me: “have you any idea what an insult it is to wave your hand in my face like that?”

 

Him: “What do you mean?”

 

Me: “You asking me how many fingers you have up, it’s an insult to do that”.

 

I leave the shop.

 

This has happened to me so many times over my life, but not for probably three years. It seems to convey a level of disrespect for me, a disbelief in my partial sight that can only be proved by him testing me. There’s something too about his sense of his right to put me through this publically in his shop with a queue behind me. In the past I’ve tended to be floored by the shock of being put through this, not knowing what to do or say and usually trying to be polite, not to make too much of an issue of it. Sometimes I’ve tried to explain how it is to be put in that position.

 

Today, I just reacted and while I’m sure it did nothing in terms of helping him understand why it might not be ok to put a blind customer through an amateur eye test like that, I came away feeling like my reaction to him had been proportionate to his behaviour. When I got back home, My partner said that she’d have left the shop as soon as it happened and not bought anything from him. I don’t know why I didn’t just leave straight after reacting. Even after swearing at him, I still  so quickly fell back into the expected routine – at least I didn’t say thanks.

 

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