Botond Vass
Characters: customer, shopkeeper, manager
The customer enters the grocery store.
CUSTOMER
Good afternoon.
SHOPKEEPER
Good afternoon, sir. How may I assist you?
CUSTOMER
I’m just wandering around.
SHOPKEEPER
Are you sure? You seem like you are looking for something but can’t find it.
CUSTOMER
To be honest, I saw a commercial that said I can buy some kind of elephant here.
SHOPKEEPER
Are you sure you came to the right place, sir? This is a grocery store, and I don’t think we sell any kind of elephant here.
CUSTOMER
Well, the commercial was on a billboard, and it had the name of this place on it and that they sell these elephant things here.
SHOPKEEPER
If you are willing to wait a couple seconds, I will ask the manager. I’m sure he can help you.
CUSTOMER
I would be grateful if you asked him.
SHOPKEEPER
I will be back in a minute.
The shopkeeper enters the manager’s office.
SHOPKEEPER
Sir, there is a customer outside who saw an advertisement that said we sell some kind of elephant here.
MANAGER
(spits out his coffee) We sell what here?
SHOPKEEPER
Some kind of elephant, sir.
MANAGER
He must be drunk or something. I will see what I can do. In the meantime, would you be so kind to clean the coffee up?
SHOPKEEPER
Of course, sir.
The manager leaves his office.
MANAGER
Good day to you, sir. I’ve heard that you are looking to buy an elephant here, but the problem is that we don’t sell any of those here, since this is a grocery store. (While he says all of this, he starts walking around, with the customer following him.)
CUSTOMER
I know they don’t sell elephants in grocery stores, but I was curious because the advert said they sell them here.
MANAGER
There must have been a mistake with the advertisement then. We are sorry, sir, but there isn’t any elephant here. I will take care of it and get the advertisement removed from the billboard.
CUSTOMER
No problem, sir. Mistakes can happen, don’t worry about it…. (Raising his voice.)
There! There they are!
MANAGER
Sir, those are eggplants, not elephants.
CUSTOMER
But it says on the tag that these are… (leaning closer) Ohh, sir. I totally forgot that I have dyslexia and I must have misread it. My apologies for wasting your time with this nonsense, sir.
MANAGER
It’s totally fine, mistakes can happen, as you said. At least we both will have a story to tell once we get home.
CUSTOMER
Sure thing, we will. I don’t want to waste your time anymore. Have a nice day, sir!
MANAGER
Nice day to you too!