Recently, I got a new job working at a clothing store in my hometown. So far, I’ve only been through training and three days of work. The job is mostly refolding clothes and making them look nice on the stands. It’s a winter job, because they need extra help during the holidays.
On my second day of work, I had an interesting encounter. I was standing next to a stand, refolding a sweatshirt, but the zipper was giving me trouble. I shifted from foot to foot, conscious that this was taking a while. I stopped and stood still, hoping that that would help. Just as I finally got the zipper to work, a woman walked up to me and started speaking. I looked up in confusion.
“I wanted to make sure you were real,” she said.
Confused, I stared at her.
“I thought you were a mannequin,” she continued.
This really confused me. I know that I was standing still and that there were actual mannequins nearby, but I was simply hunched over a movable table, working on a sweatshirt. Recovering fast, I laughed it off and said, “I keep getting surprised by those mannequins as well.”
The woman smiled and walked off. I shook my head and thought, I would do well not to stand still anymore, people might mistake me for a statue, before I continued my new job.