In a hurry?

The other day I went to the post office to mail two small packages. As usual at our small post office there was a line, a long line. I needed the packages mailed, so I joined the queue. Two other people had joined me when an elderly lady came in and exclaimed she was in a hurry and would anyone mind if she got in front of the line….

At first I thought she was joking, as did I am sure the others who chuckled at her suggestion. But then she asked again, and offered an explanation, she was running late and was going to sing at an old folks home. A kind gentleman at the head of the line offered her a place in front of him, and she took advantage of his offer.

OK, so she was doing a good deed, and he’d done his good deed. But it doesn’t end there.

The lady in front of me said she was on her lunch hour, and couldn’t wait, she left. Another patron left also, probably also in a hurry. I stayed, I wasn’t in a hurry, but I wasn’t happy.

So Mrs I’m-in-a-hurry-to-go-sing-at-an-old-folks-home pulls a carton of cigarettes from her bag and says she needs to mail these as fast as possible and hands them to the clerk. The postal clerk says they need to be put in a package, addressed first. But the old lady can’t do that herself, and insists the postal clerk does it for her, which she does. Mrs I’m-in-a-hurry-to-go-sing-at-an-old-folks-home then balks at the cost of the postage and starts to argue with the postal clerk.

In the meantime a friend of Mrs I’m-in-a-hurry-to-go-sing-at-an-old-folks-home comes in and remarks something like how did you get to the head of the line and walks right up and joins her friend. She hands Mrs I’m-in-a-hurry-to-go-sing-at-an-old-folks-home her money and tells her what she wants.

While this was happening, three people came and left because of the long line, and two people in line followed them.

So my question is, were Mrs I’m-in-a-hurry-to-go-sing-at-an-old-folks-home’s cigarettes more important than what ever it was the other people had to mail. And if they were, why did she wait till she was already running late to stop at the normally busy post office to send them? Why didn’t she mail them on her was back from her singing engagement?

I felt genuinely sorry for the elderly man who had allowed her to get in front of him. I know he was horribly embarrassed, and most likely quite sorry he’d done his good dead for the day. And I feel sorry for Mrs I’m-in-a-hurry-to-go-sing-at-an-old-folks-home too.