Fish Heads

   I live in a fairly diverse community, so the customer base for the store that I work in is (duh) pretty diverse. We have some of everybody, and are glad to have them. However, this means that our inventory must reflect that diversity. As I work in a grocery store, this means food. As in, some people eat strange things. They eat pig feet and chicken legs and turkey tails. They eat chitlins and beef tongues and chicken hearts and tripe. All kinds of strange things that I would never in my life want to look at, much less eat, but hey, to each his/her own, right? Usually when I am ringing these items up, I try to pretend that I am not holding, say, a tongue in my hand. No, not even covered in plastic packaging could I really handle that if I fully thought about what I was touching. See, some people like to try all manner of things to eat, and these people are very courageous. Me: I am a food coward. I'm not eating that. Uh-uh, no way, I am NOT hungry today. Or tomorrow. Or any day that you are serving anything that I am afraid of. But some of my customers, they don't let me ignore what I am ringing up. They revel in my wussyness, take joy in my food phobias.
   One of the foods that I have a phobia for: fish heads. I don't even know what you do with fish heads, but we sell them. And one customer in particular, an Asian guy, he buys them. And he gets in my line. And he purposely lines them up so that all of their dead, fishy eyes are staring straight at me!!! I look down at the belt to grab the next item, and I'm looking into fish eyes. Dead, glazed fish eyes that have no bodies. Oh, I just jump a mile. And this jumping must be why this man keeps getting into my line, because his smile, oh lordy his smile: it's twice the size of Texas. I look at him with my huge, 'I'm afraid' eyes and he just sits there with this cheshire cat grin on his face. I have made his day. Well, I'm glad someone is having a good day. Not that I blame him. Because if I had a use for fish heads, and I knew a cashier like me, I'd totally do the same thing. Good job, customer, good job.