The Domino Effect

 Hi there

I was in a petrol station shop last month, in a queue and waiting to be served.  I'd broken my journey on the way to New Plymouth.

It was a narrow aisle.  On the floor, leaning against the end of a rack of shelves were four or five standing-on-end empty metal shelves, one against the other, and reaching a height almost as tall as I was.  

A guy, leaving the check-out counter, pushed past me, brushing against the loose shelving -

One of the heavy shelves, the topmost one, fell onto my sneakered foot.  Hey, it hurt.  A good thing I was wearing socks.

I glared at the guy.  "You -  You - !". My mind couldn't process words.

A second shelf fell slowly, almost elegantly, down onto the same foot.  "You-  You-  You-". What with the pain and the surprise of everything, all I could do was gesture wildly for the guy to get the heavy shelving off me.

A third shelf fell  -

" You-   You-"  I'd obviously turned into a parrot.

Another shelf domino-dropped, with me still gesturing to this guy to lift the growing-heavier-by-the-second weight off me.  I was mouthing the 'you' word at him like a warped record.  He stared, dumb-founded.

Finally, after every shelf had dropped, he reached down and sheepishly lifted each one off my foot;  they were too heavy for him to do them as a job lot.  He apologised, and then sprinted away.

The man behind the counter kindly pumped my petrol for me.  I figured if this were in America, I could sue him for millions. Naughty guy, leaving obstacles in the way of customers.

It's a month later, and my foot is still aching.....😪