Trashy Behavior

My teenage daughter Amy and I were sitting in the optometrist's office waiting for her pupils to dilate. A father walked in with his 10-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son. The man was clearly flustered, telling the woman at the desk that his daughter had broken her glasses, and he produced the mangled evidence.

"That man looks so flustered," I said to Amy.

"I can't see anything," Amy said. "I don't have my contacts in and my pupils are dilated."

A second person, let's call him the glasses guy, was enlisted to take a look and told the man that the frames could not be repaired. The father mumbled something about his wife and took out his cellphone to make a call.

"See, I bet his wife normally handles this kind of thing. He's out of his league right now," I said.

"I can't see anything," Amy said.

In the meantime, the now unattended 8-year-old boy helped himself to a piece of candy from the dish on the counter and walked over toward where Amy and I were sitting as he unwrapped it. He paused near the toy area, the wrapper crinkle-crinkling in his hands. I noticed something fall and land on the perfectly clean, carpeted floor. It was a shred of the wrapper. I assumed the boy would instinctively bend over to pick it up, but he was still unwrapping the rest.

"I wonder if he saw that he dropped that," I said to Amy.

"I can't see anything," Amy said.

Then another, larger chunk of wrapper fell to the floor. There was no doubt the boy saw it fall. But he was still unwrapping.

"He definitely saw that," I said to Amy. "But maybe when he finishes unwrapping the candy, he'll pick it all up."

By now, the boy's sister had walked over while the father looked anxiously out the store window hoping his wife would appear. The man kept inching closer and closer to the front until he actually walked out the door and stood on the sidewalk gazing out into the parking lot.

The boy took this moment to shove the remaining piece of wrapper into his sister's hands. She then threw it at him, but it just bounced off of him and landed on the carpet next to the other two pieces of wrapper. The two children then walked away.

"I can't believe that!" I said to Amy.

"I can't see anything," Amy said.

"What kind of person is that?" I continued. "I don't care if he's 8. How do you just throw trash on someone's floor like that? Not only that, here the people are nice enough to put out candy. He takes the free candy that they have kindly put out and then, to repay their kindness, throws trash from that candy onto their floor. And the stupid father is standing outside waiting for the mother instead of watching his kids and making a decision about the broken glasses."

I turned to look at Amy. She looked like a Powerpuff Girl.

"Wow, your pupils are really dilated," I said.