High Jinks and Jollification

     We were in the car on our way to buy mint M&M’s and a space heater at Target when my husband said, “I’ll give you twenty dollars if you ask the electronics salesman where the doorbuster sales are.” It was already two weeks past Black Friday and Doorbusters were extinct for this year’s holiday season.

     Something came over me, I could feel it on my face: that wide-eyed, artless look of innocence that I inherited from my mother—my game face. 

     “Okay, I’ll do it.”

     “You can’t mention the twenty dollars,” he warned.

     When we entered the store I headed for the electronics department. Other than a girl behind the counter on the phone there were no sales personnel in view, so I waited patiently, trying to ignore my laughing husband hiding in the toy aisle. After a couple of minutes the polite and helpful girl on the phone said she would call someone to assist me. And she did…before I could back out of the prank and tell her not to bother.

     When I asked the polite and helpful young salesman who approached about the doorbusters, he just looked at me. I could tell that he was sizing me up, trying to determine if I was aged or just crazy. I looked him straight in the eyes, lifted my eyebrows a fraction and waited for his response.

     “Soooo…when you say doorbusters—“ he said slowly, diplomatically. By now my husband was rolling in the aisle, which was distracting and caused me to break character.

     “I’m sorry,” I said, no longer able to avoid grinning, “someone dared me to ask you that. I hope I didn’t take you away from anything important.” Since I am old enough to be his mother, maybe he forgave me.

     I got my twenty dollars though, that and my husband was still chuckling about it hours later.

     'Tis the season to be jolly.