A Weird Work Experience

It was late afternoon, that lovely quiet time of day when the students and most of the teachers are gone and you can actually settle down and get some work done. I was enjoying this quiet time when an elderly woman burst in the door and, ignoring the front counter, headed straight for my desk, holding an open wallet. I stood up and guided her gently to the front counter, where she remained on my side of the counter as she handed me the wallet. Excitedly, she told me that she had been walking over at the track at the West Albany stadium when someone came up to her and asked her to turn in this wallet to Memorial. The wallet was wet, and I set it on the counter, commenting that the picture looked like one of our students. She said, "The person told me he found it in the toilet." I perhaps screeched something like, "You just handed me a wallet that was in a TOILET! Excuse me while I go wash my hands!" I quickly went to the next room where I thoroughly soaped and scrubbed my hands.

She was still standing at the counter going through the wallet when I returned, apparently completely unfazed about handling a wallet that had recently been in a TOILET. "Look, there's no money it it. But there's an ATM card. Why would such a young person have an ATM card? And isn't it strange that the young man who gave it to me asked me to bring it here instead of bringing it himself. Don't you think that's strange?" She kept talking and going through the wallet, which rested on the front counter where I stand and do business every day. I could hardly stand it that this toilet-water wallet was on my countertop.

I noticed my friendly fellow secretary trying to sneak out of the office and I quickly asked, "Helen, what do you think of this?" "Helen, how are you," our voluble uninvited guest chirped, delighted to see an acquaintance. They got involved in conversation and I snuck away to spend some more quality time with soap at the sink.

Finally the dear old lady departed, apparently satisfied that she had thoroughly investigated the contents of the wallet and had puzzled long enough over the mystery of why the young man chose her for this important errand. Helen immediately scooped the wallet into a plastic bag, I got out the disinfectant cleaner and spent some time thoroughly cleaning the countertop.

This, my friends, is one more reason to always shop at a store that provides disinfectant wipes next to the shopping carts, and always thoroughly disinfectant-wipe the handles of your shopping cart!