Free Pizza

My cousin and I went to the mall on her birthday. This wasn’t the only thing we did, but I thought it was one of the most interesting ones. We went in with a list of things we were going to do… things that would put us out of our comfort zone and make us feel crazy, I guess. I’m not exactly sure why we thought this would be fun… One of the things we had to do was give a 12” tomato pizza to some random person we didn’t know. We had just ordered some cheesy bread and pizza from Pier 49 for lunch, and quickly realized that our tummies couldn’t fit much more than a few slices of the cheesy bread. So we had this pizza. When we walked into Fashion Place Mall with it we were giggling at our absolute cleverness, trying to think of the kind of person who would actually take something so random from two total strangers in a shopping mall. Not to mention the fact that it was hot food. We really could have been some sick teenagers playing a mean trick. What if it was really old or there was something simply grotesque inside of it? Why in the world would someone want to give away a perfectly good pizza to a stranger? We thought of giving it to a bum on the street but decided that might be both difficult and dangerous. So, the next stereotype that came to our mind was none other than a stupid, hungry male adolescent or young adult. Better yet, a group of them. How perfect. It was actually very, very easy to do. In fact, our specimens fell right into our laps in the form of four twenty-something TMobile salesmen in a kiosk who tried to get our attention no less than five minutes after entering the building. As soon as they started bashing our Verizon phones I realized I could kill two birds with one stone. I held up the pizza and asked if they wanted it. Voila. It was a done deal before I even said a word. In my shock and excitement I asked them to take a picture with me. Flash. Dude, what kind is it? Sweet, it’s hot. Thanks. Yeah, have a nice day. Ironically, the pizza was the most graciously and enthusiastically accepted thing Rachel and I did that day in that mall. Did you know that about 90% of retail stores won’t let you take photographs inside? Yeah, I learned that, and just how annoyed shoppers and retailers get when you disrupt any kind of normality by interacting with them under no ulterior motive. I guess our society really is a neighborhood of strangers who just prefer not to be bothered. How sad a truth, when a friendly face, a smile, and a cordial hello just might have the power to heal someone of a bad day.