Santa comes to Winton Branch
The real Santa Claus made a brief appearance at Winton Branch Library today.
An immigrant dad and his four kids, ages toddler to high-school, brought an armload of videos to the checkout. I explained our limit is six. No, not six per person, six per card. They have one card. The older kids don’t have ID with them so they can get their own cards today.
Oh, and no, it’s not six DVD and six VHS, it’s six all together. After much negotiation, over a dozen videos are culled to be put back.
Meanwhile, a line is building up behind them. Patient people, but a line nonetheless.
I scan his card. He has $30.25 in fines. We can’t check out anything to anyone with fines over $5.00. They didn’t bring any money.
A man steps forward through the line asking if the fine was keeping them from checking out videos. Two things went through my head. First, it’s a private matter, even though it’s tough to keep that sort of conversation completely confidential. Second, I thought he was going to ask them to move along so everyone else could check out.
I was very, very wrong.
Instead, he slid two twenty-dollar bills across the counter and said, “I’ll pay for it.”
Shock from me and the family in question. The family declines the offer, several times. The other man insists. They relent when he says, “Consider it a Merry Christmas gift.”
I rang up the $30.25, gave him his change and he slipped back through the line, never to be seen again.
I don’t know where he came from, or where he went. It had to be Santa dressed in civvies.
