Russell Bailey

Pigtails and Power Rangers

I’m at Starbucks, and I’m completely shocked at a what I see.  A brother and sister walk in after school.  She has pig tails.  He has a Power Rangers back pack.  She’s no older than eleven, and he’s maybe eight.  They look like the two most innocent kids in the world, the kind that would be in a Walmart picture frame.  They walk past the cash register, and straight to the back of the store and ask where the supervisor is.

So, the supervisor comes out, and immediately makes them drinks, and brings them to the kids.  The kids leave.  Did I miss something?  I know they didn’t pay.  I think that perhaps she knows them.

The next day, I’m back at the same Starbucks.  The kids are back.  They pass the register, including the line, and strait back to the back.  I see the same supervisor this time shake her head “no”.  I watch.

Then from the little eight year old boy I hear “Are you kiddin’ me?  We come in here everyday for a year, and now you’re not givin’ us OUR drink?  I mean, we’ve been LOYAL.”  He starts waving his hands like a rapper.  The eight year old.

The supervisor still says no, and then the twelve year old girl gets in her face. “You trying to tell me that you’re going to make us drinks every day for a year, and then out of no where stop?  What’s wrong with you?”  I could tell the Starbucks employee was getting nervous.  Heck, I was getting nervous.  Things were getting loud.

A few minutes later, both the kids walked out – drinks in hands like they owned the world.  I know that they at least owned Starbucks.

A few days later I was back for my regular Carmel Macchiato.  Guess who shows up?  So they walk past the register as before, and are looking around.  The supervisor from before must have been off that day.  But after a minute of these kids sticking their heads in the back of the store, the eight year old boy looks around at all of the guests in the store, and throws his hands up in the air and says,  “Must be the wrong store.”  The girl flips her hair back, “Yeah, we ain’t never been in this Starbucks before.”

And they leave.  Pigtails, and Power Rangers.