About 15 people were standing in a slow-moving line at the Uptown post office. “I can’t believe they only have three windows open,” said one woman irritably to the man behind her. “It’s lunchtime!”
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A fourth employee was standing behind the counter at window six, but she was sorting papers, jiggling a key in a lock, talking to the employee at window seven. A bell rang, and the sign on the wall indicated that window six was open. But as a woman strode up to it, the employee walked away.
The bell rang for window seven, and a man walked up to it. The woman pushed next to him, poked her head through the window, and told the woman behind the counter she thought she should be next since the employee at window six didn’t seem to be coming back. The woman behind the counter told her she’d have to get in line like everyone else.
“Yes you did!” “No I didn’t!” “Yes you did!” “No I didn’t!” the employee shouted even louder, and moved away from the counter. “Yes you did!” came a loud chorus from most of the people still standing in line. For a moment the whole room, both sides of the counter, was silent. “Yes you did!” shouted a woman near the front of the line. “We saw it, so you can shut up!” The woman behind the counter at window seven stuck her head out. “Who said that?” she asked angrily. “You wanna step out?” No one said anything.
