The Fun of Christmas Shopping

I was traipsing around the mall this afternoon, heading for my next target, when I looked up and saw I was approaching a kiosk. There was an earnest young man there, about his 20s or so, holding a squeeze tube of some kind of cream. He held the tube toward me and asked, "Would you like to try - ?"

"No," I said, in as positive a mode of voice as possible (without raising the volume to Public Nuisance).

As I walked by he asked, "Sir, may I ask you a question?"

Now who could pass up that challenge?

Not me. So I stopped and faced him.

He asked, "Do you take care of your nails?"

Silly boy. I leaned in toward him and replied, "Let me put it to you this way: I can rip your throat out with them right now." I capped this statement with a small, tight smile.

He blinked and his eyes grew wide as he looked toward his partner at the kiosk (who wasn't paying attention), and I slipped away. As I walked off, I thought to myself that he won't be so quick to accost strangers in the mall anymore, Christmas or not.