Scoops Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor

12 years ago, I went to the flea market at the fairgrounds. It was hot. It was swamp-​crotch-​hot. I went to the Scoops concession stand to get a bottle of water.
I think the water was like $ 2.00. I handed the attendant over a $ 20.00 bill and walked off.
I got a ways off before I realized I had walked off without getting my change. I went back to the stand and explained that I had exchanged a $ 20 for the bottle of water and needed my change back.
The attendant listened to my account of the event, and then informed me that she couldn’t be sure that I had given her a $ 20.00 or not, wondered aloud how she was supposed to know I wasn’t try to scam her, and that she would not return $ 18.00 from my alleged change.
She said to call to the store to see if the drawer was over $ 18.00
I called the store on Monday. The manager said they didn’t even know what I was talking about.
$ 18.00 to a 19 year old kid who lives off a ³⁵⁄₄₀ hour minimum wage job, on their own, is a fortune. Do you have any idea how many forties that is?
I have never forgotten that Scoops representative’s cynicism towards humanity. How was she supposed to know I wasn’t trying to scam her? I dunno, how am I supposed to know every stranger I pass by isn’t some scumbag who will lie, cheat, steal, assault their way to the top – handful of eighteen dollars by handful of eighteen dollars? How am I supposed to know if everyone I don’t know personally isn’t trying to screw me over randomly, and so elaborately?
Maybe that Scoops representative was right – human beings ARE nasty and brutish AND it is safe to assume so when dealing with their customers. It makes me sad to think that is true, but hey, according to that Scoops representative, that is life.
That bottle of water was good though.