Lessons In Sign-Waving
Sam sat in the back room of his local Papa Murphy’s pizza shop. He had applied a few months ago and was hired nearly a day later and quickly realized that he was awful at pizza-making. Most attempts to try led to a heavy scolding by his superiors and a strict order to go back and do dishes. Sam hated dishes, it bored him and he almost always ended up completely sopping wet. Then he rode his bike to his house in the cold February air. Sam almost quit, but then he found something; something he was good at.
When the cold winter winds subsided and the warm glow of an early spring set in, the sign waving began. Sam had been told about sign waving and from what he heard, it was not something he wanted to do. But Sam fell prey to the onslaught of his prejudiced supervisors and he was quickly sent out onto the sidewalk, sign in hand and headphones in ears. It wasn’t too hot outside and the light breeze felt good. Sam straightened the hat on his head and planted his feet on the ground then proceeded to gently wobble the sign back and forth in his hand, barely advertizing the generously discounted pizzas. But a new pizza shop had opened doors just across the street.
Dominos began to take all the business on this side of town. Sam couldn’t really care less about which pizza was better, but the manager sure did. Strict policies were enacted to make pizzas better and faster, leaving Sam outside sign waving alone. Oddly enough Sam didn’t mind. he would listen to his music and even flip his sign up into the air as he spun catching it. The first time he did this a passing car honked in approval and that led to Sam doing something he had never really done at this job, tried and enjoyed.
Over the weeks he would watch videos on the internet to learn new skills and tricks about sign waving. His standard of just wobbling a sign evolved into a very dynamic and explosive routine filled with elements of break-dancing and baton twirling. More and more Sam began to bring in customer after customer with his routine. The store owner noticed the new revenue that was being brought in because of Sam’s sign waving. Because of this Sam was given a promotion and a raise, he no longer had to make pizza’s or do dishes. All he had to do was wave a sign around. Sam was excited about it now and he was soon biking home with a smile on his face and a hefty paycheck in hand. All was fine, until she showed up.
One day as Sam tightened his gloves and grabbed the sign, he noticed a blue and red square sign bobbing up and down across the street. As Sam approached the edge of the road he noticed that this new sign waver hailed from Dominos and she obviously didn’t know what she was doing. regardless Sam started his routine but the eyesore of a sign waver was causing him to cringe as this girl tried and failed, dropping the sign, chasing it onto the street, or falling down because the wind blew her over and the sign went sailing. Sam had half the mind to go help her up, but when he stopped waving his sign, his supervisor yelled at him from the store to continue. So he just waved his sign with his eyes averted away from the poor girl. When the sunlight started to fade he was called in, while the girl across the street had to stay out and wave her sign. Apparently all the employees in the store had witnessed Sam’s outshining of the girl and congratulated Sam for his performance and sticking it Dominos.
The normal luster of all this praise was gone, Sam felt terrible for the girl across the street and wished there was something he could do. Papa Murphy’s generally closed earlier than most pizza shops, so when they closed the store Sam rode his bike to the Dominos to see if he could identify the girl. He stood outside looking in through the window scanning the employees for a girl. He couldn’t find her though, his efforts were futile. So Sam rode home, thinking only of the girl with the blond ponytail flooding out of the visor she wore and the embarrassed look on her face.
The next day he quickly threw on his sign waving equipment and ran out to see if she was there. She wasn’t, to Sam’s dismay. Sam started to wave anxiously waiting for her to come out, an hour went by and there was still no sign of her. What if she was fired? Sam thought. He went back inside the store for a quick break. His coworkers, (Though they were grateful for Sam), still didn’t want to associate with him. Sam didn’t have many friends anyways, but he wished he had some at work. In the silence Sam took a drink, went to the bathroom and rushed outside and this time she was there. She looked like she was doing a little better, but lacked the commitment to really try. So Sam thought he’d help her, but he couldn’t get her attention. he’d try yelling across the street but the rush of traffic absorbed the sound. Sam needed something loud, that’s when he spotted a semi truck careening down the highway. He gave the universal “honk you horn!” gesture and then spun the sign on his finger, tossed it up into the air, leapt back and caught it in time for the truck to witness the trick and let out a long series of honks.
The truck passed and Sam saw the girl standing there, hands down and mouth wide open looking at him. He smiled and held up his hand. She looked confused. How could he communicate? He gave her a series of hand gestures that she obviously didn’t understand, but finally got through with a combination of multiple gestures. She started to mimic him. He started slowly flipping the sign, starting with the basics. He would look back at the store to make sure no one else witnessed what was going on. For nearly half an hour Sam gave this girl lessons in sign waving. After that the girl checked her watch, gave Sam a gracious bow and waved goodbye, smiling. Sam’s day was made.
The next few days would go on and Sam would teach her more and more. In a couple of weeks she knew everything he knew. They soon became thick as thieves. Every day would consist of dance battles between the two, parades down the street, ballroom dancing with the signs and a makeshift battlefield; using their hands as guns and the signs as barricades. They successfully brought in business for both of their pizza food chains but to the employees it just looked like competition between the two. But Sam looked forward to each day that he could wave the sign in front of the pizza shop.
The bad thing was that he didn’t know who the girl was though. She probably went to his school but he wouldn’t recognize her without the Domino’s uniform, and he had only really seen her from at least forty feet away, not enough to know her face. So many times Sam would almost walk into Dominos, but he feared the employees would angrily glance at him for being the business stealing mascot. Not only that, but Sam’s manager told him it was bad for business to be seen philandering with another pizza shop. So she remained a mystery to Sam for the time being.
One day it was pouring rain and Sam still went out to wave the sign, and she wasn’t there. Regardless, he started to wave anyways. Pretty soon he saw the girl come out, either her manager made her come out because they noticed Sam, or maybe she just wanted to see him as as much as he wanted to see her. They started to do their respective routines. They started to use the sides of their signs as canoes and pantomime rowing in the rain. They were both drenched but he could see, even from this far away, a smile on her face. That’s when he knew he had to talk to her. He stopped his routine, threw his sign down and started for the crosswalk. His manager didn’t like that. The manager stomped out, water splashing everywhere, and yelling to Sam. But Sam just kept walking, until he heard three words. You’ll be fired! Sam stopped, half infuriated and half disappointed. He turned to his manager, who had a smug look on his face, and Sam went back to his sign. The manager nodded in victory and went back to the store.
Sam just stood there, rain pouring on him, he wobbled the sign half heartedly. A car rushed by splashing frigid, muddy water all over him, he didn’t care. His head hung low, he felt the sting of embarrassment and defeat. He started to shuffle back and forth a bit but he wouldn’t get back into his standard today. Then he slipped as an insane biker passed by unseen, and he fell to the ground. He didn’t need to look but he could feel the sting of his coworkers staring at him through the window of his store. He heard footsteps nearing him. I’m getting fired. He thought.
“Hey.” He heard, looking up. There she was, her hand outstretched. “I’m Olivia”
“Sam. . .” He introduced himself as he got up, shaking her hand. “You know, I’m probably getting fired for this, but it’s really nice to finally meet you.” He said.
“It’s alright, I think I just quit by coming over here.” She said smiling. Sam saw his manager in the window with a deadly glare. He looked at him, smiled and waved.
“Me too.” He said gladly.
“Hey, I just want to say thanks for everything, you made work bearable.” she said. There was a little bit of silence as Sam then looked at his watch.
“Do you maybe want to - um. . .go get lunch?” Sam asked.
“Yeah, I have nothing to do.” She said, “I should probably return my stuff though.” “Oh, yeah, I should do that to. I’ll meet you back here?” Sam replied.
“Ok, five minutes.” She said reassuringly. Sam smiled and went back to his workplace to return his things. The shouting that ensued didn’t bug him, life seemed to have muted itself as he walked out of Papa Murphy’s while the Manager still spouted at him. His coworkers watched him with a serious glare as he happily waved back to them while going out into the rain, which was clearing up now. He walked back to the sidewalk for one last time, to go to lunch with Olivia.
