Today I walked into a jewelry shop. The shop owner was very friendly.
I suspect he was happy for the business. These days I am guess anybody in retail is glad for the business.
We said our hellos, and then he told me they were running a special today. “Oh, really?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said pleasantly. “Half off all earrings. If you buy one earring, you get the other one for free.”
It took me a moment to realize it was a joke. But then I laughed, because somehow it struck me as very funny.
I thought about that poor man, all day in his shop day after day, in the midst of a pandemic, just waiting for a customer to come in. And I wondered how many times today he had occasion to try that joke out on somebody.
I hope he had the opportunity to tell it many times.