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Ten Percent Off

Mon, 21 Nov 2016, 09:15 PM (-06:00) Creative Commons License

She helped me find a pair of running shoes. The ones I’ve been running in need replacing, or will soon. And the store was having a 10% off sale, so I found myself in the market for a new pair. But I didn’t have the faintest idea what to get, nor did I particularly care, because the days of me feeling strongly about my shoes have passed.

Still, I needed something to replace my wearing out pair, so when she walked past where I was sitting, I asked for some help.

It didn’t take long. She knew what she was talking about. And she was able to bring out several boxes for me to try on that were probably sufficient replacements. 

I tried one pair, and they didn’t feel right. I tried another pair, and they felt great. And the final pair slipped loosely on my heels as I walked, so I never even got up to a jog in them.

“I’ll take the Mizunos,” I told her. “How much are they?”

“$120.00,” she said.

“And with 10% off,” Trudy added…

“Oh, I can’t do that math,” she said.

She can’t do that math. Ten percent of 120? I know I’m being harsh, but what a shame. She knew the shoes in the store. She was a runner. She was friendly and cheerful. But she didn’t know how to calculate ten percent of 120.

No wonder, I thought to myself. No wonder we got to where we are.

© jumpingfish by David Hasan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License