Posted by Frodo on January 23, 2000 at 13:25
The local county fair opened at 10:00 on a Friday morning, and I cruised around at noontime to see what it had to offer this year. Over on the far side was a table of handcrafted items for sale, and a young man, looking somewhat bored, was tending it. He was twenty or less, with the build of someone who did hard physical work. I was the only person showing any interest in his wares.
"Is this stuff made locally?" I asked.
"Yeh," he replied. "My family made it all. My sister was supposed to run this table, but she's sick today, so I got stuck with it. Had to get here early just to set it up."
"Must make for a long day," I said. "You have to stay here until it closes at 11:00?"
"Someone has to be here 'til then."
"No breaks at all? You can't leave this table unattended."
"My little brother's supposed to stop by on his way home from school, and my father's going to take over at 7:00."
"I'm glad it's you and not me," I continued. "I'd need a pee break before then."
"It'd take a whole bunch of these," he said, picking up his can of soda, "before I had a problem." Hew looked almost smug.
"What time is your brother expected?"
"High school gets out at 2:30, so I guess he'll be here by 3:00," he answered.
I looked at my watch. It was 12:45.
I put a ten-dollar bill on the table and pointed to the sodas in his cooler.
"This is yours just to chug two of those cans while I'm standing here. I'll give you another if you don't take a break until your brother gets here."
He gave me a strange look, but the prospect of making a quick twenty bucks was appealing.
"You're on," he said. He drank the two cans and crushed them manfully, then snatched up the ten.
"Ill be checking on you," I said, and I strolled off.
He smiled at waved at me at 1:45. At 2:30, he seemed more serious, so I went over to him. He scowled at me and was shifting from foot to foot. "That damned brother of mine had better be on time," he muttered.
I decided to hang around. A few minutes later I went back over to his table. He was even more fidgety, and one hand was thrust deep into his pocket.
"I'm in trouble here," he said in a low voice. "But I had to be here before 9:00 to set up and the effin' pissers are 'way over near the entrance. Them two cans is what did it."
Now he was bouncing on his feet and I could see the hand action in the pocket. He kept looking down the alleyway toward the entrance. "Where in hell is my brother?"
A woman came over and looked at a few things on the table. But when she saw the angry expression on his face she moved on.
"Oh, jeez!" he sputtered. "Do I ever have to piss. I ain't gonna make it."
He jiggled up and down, paced back and forth, and each time he stopped he pressed his legs together.
Both hands were in the pockets now. Then he looked at me and announced, "Ya gotta watch the table."
He broke into a run as he headed toward the toilets at the other end of the fairground. He was gone several minutes, and during that time his younger edition walked up.
"Where's my brother?" he asked.
"He went to use the men's room. Here, you're in charge now."
I strolled down toward the toilets, and waited until finally my young man came out of the door. A wet area extended from his crotch to beyond the knee of one leg. The expression on his face showed the embarrassment he felt.
Another young man on the way in grinned and commented, "Guess you were a little too late!"
Several other people looked and smiled. One man addressed him by name and called out, "Get yourself some diapers!"
He was beet red and clearly at a loss. I took out a twenty and stuffed it in his shirt pocket.
"Here, you earned this. Your brother is here, and maybe you'd better go home and change."
He was still standing there looking at the twenty when I left. He really did earn it!
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