The other day, I was sitting in the Emergency Room waiting area at a local hospital in South Florida, when an older woman walked by me, put her dollar in the vending machine that was next to me, and proceeded to enter a series of numbers to get a bag of chips.
I watched as she did this. And, I watched as the bag of chips slowly slid forward but never reached the bottom of the machine for her to take it out and eat them. They were just hanging there — half in, half out. They were hanging by a single thread.
She banged on the machine. Nothing happened. She banged again, this time with more force. Nothing happened. She started to shake the machine back and forth. Now, I was getting nervous that the candy machine would fall on me! She banged on the machine again.
“My chips,” she said, “my chips… they aren’t coming out of the machine. I want my chips!”
She banged again. “Can someone help me?” she screamed out. She banged again.
After five bangs, I started to laugh. I couldn’t control myself. She shook and banged the machine again. I couldn’t look at her any longer. I was trying to hold it back but couldn’t. She shook and rattled the machine again.
She banged on the vending machine 13 times. Yes, 13 times before she gave up. She looked at the machine and banged for the 14th time before she walked out of the emergency room in a huff.
A few minutes after she left, a woman with a small child in a stroller came by. She put her dollar in the machine, pressed her numbers and out came her candy bar along with the bag of chips. She looked at her daughter and said, “today must be our lucky day…”
