Want a Cookie?

My pal Penny and I stopped giving each other birthday and Christmas presents last year and instead we now take a girls' weekend trip together. This year, we decided to do a bit of shopping in Halifax. We left early Friday morning intending to take in the new Dartmouth Crossing and Bayers Lake. (Dartmouth Crossing, by the way, is very charming and while not complete yet, is a different retail experience. I'd go again.)

But before we got to either place, we first stopped at MicMac Mall and checked out a few stores we don't have in Fredericton. We walked by an educational games store and decided to browse. We were greeted by a young girl with a tray of cookies. "Want a cookie?" she asked smiling. Both being diabetic we politely declined. And then she starts into a spiel about a new membership program the store had started. We again declined telling her that we were from out of town. She nodded and moved on.

Now this store, and I'm sure you've all seen the type, is not very big. There was probably about six rows of shelves before the "teachers' section". Penny and I browsed a couple of rows for a couple of minutes and inevitably met the same girl, she held out her tray, and said, smiling, "Want a cookie?" We both smiled and said "um, you just told us about that." She replied a bit surprised, "Oh, sorry," and moved on. Both of look at each other in actual shock. I'm wearing a bright yellow jacket, not something one wouldn't recognize.

I swear not another minute goes by and lo and behold, she's back, "Want a cookie?" comes the high-pitched nasal voice. This time Penny pokes me. And I hold in a giggle while I reply "NO THANK YOU" for the third time. There doesn't appear to be anything that would impede this girl from not recognizing us.

We move on. I consider buying a game for Madie and me but the line up is quite long, so we decide not to stay. We reach the door of the store and hear, "Want a cookie?" NUMBER FOUR. And you can tell she's SERIOUS! Really, I want to say, "YES!" and take the tray and walk out of the store. But, of course, I don't. We repeat our pat response and leave. We're tempted to go back to see if we get a number five. But let's put the poor girl out of her misery. We're still not sure if she was playing with us (we don't believe so) or if she just hated what she was doing so much, she didn't really look at anyone.

Whatever her reason, she gave us a laugh ... in fact of bunch of them during the whole trip. Honey, you made our day! Want a cookie?