Dearest Steemit community, like many of you I too have a nine to five and I usually spend it going through the motions.

Get up, have a shower, get dressed, go to work, go home.

This is a vivid recount of a shift that has left me mentally and emotionally scarred ......and not too fond of the elderly ever since.

*shudders *

So the weirdest thing I have every experienced working in a supermarket happened

an elderly lady with a walking frame and her carer came through my register and I regularly serve them and I wasn't really expecting anything other than small chit chat.

This was more or less the exchange after the carer loaded up the groceries onto the conveyor belt and the carer had pushed the trolley through.

Elderly Lady -"Tracey your finger has fallen off again! I told you to put it on ice and go to hospital!"

I look over onto the floor is the mangled remains of someone's lacerated finger.

"Tracey," looks at me and says, " I cut my finger off earlier today preparing a meal for her (motions to the elderly lady.) and I tried to reattach it myself."

I'm like - "...oh, well did well did you want me to get a first aid attendant or something?"

Tracey - "No it's ok, it got stuck between the metal in the trolley and I knocked it off accidentally. It probably won't stay on anyway."

The elderly woman rolled her walker forward nearly squishing the severed finger.

..........This can't be happening

Me - "✋ stop you'll squash it."

Elderly lady - "Oh well do you have any receipt paper or something to pick it up?"

Me thinking to myself - "God, imagine if someone slipped on a severed finger."

I ask, "How about a plastic bag?"

The elderly lady takes the bag and picks up the finger as if it's a piece of dog poo and turns to Tracey.

Elderly Lady -"Do you really think they can reattach your finger now?"

Tracey - "Not really its been a few hours and it hasn't been on ice or anything, plus it looks a bit messed up anyway."

Elderly Lady - "Do you think you'll mange without it?"

Tracey - "Yeah I've sort of come to terms that it won't stay on my hand after today."

SORRY, WOT?

I can't tear my eyes from the womans' hand and I obviously have a look of confusion mixed with curiosity.

Elderly lady - "It's ok to say it, and to acknowledge that she has a finger missing, I mean you wouldn't treat someone in a wheelchair differently just because they can't use their legs."

(It was so blatantly on the ground so I didn't really think of it as missing)

Me - "No it's no that, it's just that I play guitar and losing a finger would be devastating for me."

Elderly lady - "Oh I totally understand, I play piano."

Long silence

...

"James do you have a bin?"

After literally the longest 3 seconds

...

Me still in shock lift up the bin.

Elderly lady puts plastic bag and finger in bin.

I finish putting their groceries through in silence.

Elderly Lady - "Okay cool! See you next time, have a great day."
parting our encounter with a slight smile.

Me - "Yeah... Um ok, see you then...."
I look at the queue of people ahead but I have to take a look in the plastic bag.

"Oh god," I think, " that's one f#cked up finger."

I stifle vomiting and try to think of a way to explain to my boss that there's a finger in my bin.
I serve the next few customers in a daze and eventually there's no more customers waiting.

Ok this is it,

I'm about to call out to the assistant store manager, but I stop myself.

"Let's have another look at what's in the bag first," I don't want to get them to come over for no reason and not find a finger than look like an idiot.

I cautiously open the bag and see the messed up remains of what my brain subconsciously thinks is a finger only to realise is a fucked up twiggy stick that's been snapped in half and lacerated.

A overwhelming sense of relief washed over me, "Thank God there's not a finger in my bin and that I don't have to explain it to my boss."

I think about how my first stop after work is definitely going to be the bottle shop and that's kind of comforting.

What we can all take from this is that growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.... Also I need some great ideas to get them back.

TLDR; I got traumatically pranked by a 60 year old and now I'm a borderline alcoholic who will probably struggle with trust issues.

This is my first post so I figured it had better be a good one! Share the love and I'll be sure to share more weird stories or weird encounters I have with people or my thoughts on things but probably bad jokes and bad puns.

This was originally posted on my personal facebook page on the 26th of July.
facebook.com/jimmy2123

(In the comments please feel free to share any weird encounters with the general public or elderly you've had.)

Oh and for those of you wondering I've since seen Tracey since this happened, she is actually missing a finger and now I'm curious how she actually lost it.