"Sure, I don't mind. As long as I get to eat a cream cheese filled, deep fried jalapeño every time, I make a sale." Ino said with a huge smile on her face.
"Ino, rules of business. You don't eat up your supply, or you will lose the profit. Don't munch, on what pays for your lunch." Ino's mom scolded.
"Mom, you are over reacting again. Me eating some jalapeños is not going to put us out of business. It's just a few jalapeños." Ino whined.
"You can have some during break, but not while your serving the customers. It's against regulations." Ino's mom said looking irritated.
Ino's Mom and Dad owned jalapeño farms. The business has been passed down from generation to generation. Ino spent the day, at the jalapeño stand, selling and collecting money for jalapeños. It was a dry, hot day. The sun was high and blaring. She was sweaty and smelled like fried foods. She was getting a slight sun burn. This had to be the 7th lemonade she bought today, she thought.
This reminded her, of what her mom said. But instead of eating all her profit, she was using it to buy lemonade. She started to laugh. Well luckily, the farmers market was just one of the ways they sold jalapeños or else, her family would go bankrupt.
She was taking a sip of her lemonade and people watching. People watching was a hobby for her. She liked watching and seeing how other people interacted.
She felt like some people were more complex, than others. Some were more dramatic. Some were really mellow. She liked comparing how they handled a situation to how she would handle it. This made it easier for her to relate and deal with difficult interactions better. The other day, another vendor at the farmers market, whom was neighbors to her stand, had a customer complaint.
The customer complained about the vendor's berries being sour. The customer got loud and was causing a scene. The man politely, told the customer, he could return and exchange those berries. The customer got to take another berry basket, free of charge. Ino felt like that was a good move on the vendors part, because it ended the problem quickly.
She was thinking up different scenarios in her head. She thought to herself, If the vendor would have said, I'm sorry. That's not his problem. Some berries are just sour. He has no way of measuring how sour the berries are. If they are the right color and look ripe, one would assume they were sweet. That was the answer she originally thought of. It would have most likely made the problem worst.
She saw a family in the distance. There were three people. Two men and one woman. She saw a guy stretching and yawning. He looked maybe late twenties, early thirties? He looked clean cut, but pretty average. He looked of average built and height. He was not the typical type that Ino would find attractive. The lady was looking at the younger man.
She speculated that, that must be his mom. The other guy was probably his dad. The lady looks a lot older. She looked too old to be his girlfriend. Although the woman could be a cougar, she analyzed. She then saw the younger man sniffing his arm pits. She could not contain her laughter, while drinking her lemonade. The lemonade went down the wrong tube.
She started coughing. A little bit of lemonade went up her nose. It stung. Her eyes began to water. She could not stop coughing. Then started laughing at the situation she was in. Laughing was one of the traits she had when reacting to random incidences. Also, whether she was nervous or worried, she laughed. This sometimes got her into trouble.
She saw the woman looking at her. Ino tried harder to contain herself. It was hard for her to keep her composure. The younger man started walking her way. Maybe he's going to tell me to stop staring or mind my own business, she was anticipating what he was going to do.
Ino's pulse started getting faster. She started to get nervous. He doesn't look so bad up close, but he definitely looks shorter than average now. Taller than me, but shorter than the average guy. He was wiping his hands on his jeans. Maybe, he needs a napkin? Maybe, he's hot and wants to know where I got my lemonade. This is what she perceived, from what she just witnessed.
He's staring at me. Well, I can stare back too. This is kind of awkward, normally when a person looks back at someone who is staring at them, this makes the other person look away. But they both are just staring at each other.
As he's walking up to her, he poked himself in the eye. If this was a staring contest. She had just won, she thought to herself. She could not help it, she started laughing again. She was trying to laugh quietly, but it was blatant laughter. Her breathing was heavy and she felt tears coming out of her left eye, from pure enjoyment.
She has a mean sense of humor. She doesn't understand why, but she's one of those people who laughs, when people hurt themselves. When people fall, she checks if they're okay first. The can't help, but laugh if they are.
The lady she saw earlier, walked towards the young man. She was smiling and started walking with him. Maybe the lady was smiling trying to contain her laughter too, she derived. Now, they were both walking, closer to her stand.
The lady asked Ino, what their best selling, customer favorite was. She honestly did not know, but considering She ate multiples of these items a day.
She replied, "Our pickled jalapeños are the best seller. Our fried jalapeños, stuffed with cream cheese, are a close second."
She wanted 10 of the deep fried, stuffed jalapeños and wanted Ino to hand them to her son, named Chester. Ino thought that must be the young guy walking with her. She was right. The lady was not a cougar. She started getting their jalapeño order ready.
Then she heard the young man say, "Thank you! Diarrhea! Runs! Name!"
"You are welcome! Maybe Diarrhea! Walk! Ino, what's your name?" She interpreted wondering if this a game where verbs are not used?
She wanted to reassure, that he was Chester. She was just being cautious and making sure, he was the one, she was suppose to give the order to.
(Back to present day)
Ino, felt her stomach grumbling. It was a bad feeling in her gut. It was her body trying to remind her, it didn't like what she was experiencing. It was her first time ever going on a shuttle to Zoltan. And She felt like it would be her last. If she could help it, she would not travel in one again.
She didn't like the space shuttle vibrating violently. The seats, though they were locked in place, worried her. What would happen, if something went wrong and her seat just unlocked. She was beginning to get more paranoid. It made her more nervous.