Working in a truck stop

I used to work at a Taco Bell in a truck stop. Anybody who has frequented a truck stop knows that you get some odd people from time to time.

Now before you read this, I want you to know that this was a few years back. I know what I did was wrong, but I'm gonna tell the story from my perspective back then.

I was working one night and this giant of a woman comes in. Believe it or not, female truckers are not uncommon. She ordered her food and I started making it. Smooth sailing. Up until the cash register's computer locked up and we had to restard the system. For most people, waiting a few minutes wouldn't be a big deal. But this woman was hungry. She threw a fit, took her money back and ran off. Whatever, I had already made her food so it was just free food for me.

About an hour later, I was in the dining room sweeping and talking to a coworker of mine. We were talking about the giant lady, or rather talking about her size. My coworker said "She must have been at least 6' 9"." To which I replied, "I was too busy wondering how her legs got so big." Each of her legs were thicker than my torso, and I was slightly chubby back then. When I said the word "legs", this short, stout guy, with a red face and a crew cut turned to look at me. "She had big what?" he asked. I replied by holding my hands about two feet apart and said, "Legs, they were huge." He didn't say anything else. I realized that it was a dumb move to say that to a customer but didn't think much of it. I finished sweeping and went into the office to do paperwork. Thats right, I was a manager. While I was in the office, I heard that same guy ask for a manager. Thinking "What now?" I walk out to the counter and hear him say, "Tell that little asshole to get out here!" I go to ask what the problem is, but before I can get a word out he yells, "Hey, who the f*** do you think you are? You know who that woman is? She is my fiancee. You think you're f***ing perfect? Her legs are swollen because she drives a thousand miles a day. I know that if I were to go tell her what you said, she would come up here and beat the shit out of you!" All I said to this was, "Do you want your money back?" What else could I say?

So he left and I thought everything was alright. About twenty minutes later, I felt the floor shaking. Oh no. Here she comes. Lo and behold she comes around that corner, cheeks flushed, eyes on fire, and fists and jaw clenched. I wasn't worried until she stormed BEHIND the counter and put her finger to my chest. "You f***ing asshole! You don't know me! I drive EVERY day! I WORK for my money! You make f***ing tacos! You're a piece of shit!" Here is where I stopped her, although I was scared to death of this women, I told her "I'm 16 years old. I'm still in high school. Its not MY fault you chose to be a truck driver." I swear she was going to hit me right then. She probably would have done some real damage too. Luckily, someone from another area of the truck stop jumped in between us and told someone to call the police. Upon hearing this, she runs off. Someone does call the police and they show up in about five minutes. The cop wants to talk to me of course and I explain what happened. I was expecting to be scolded for making fun of someone's appearance but no. The police officer looks at me with a sly grin on his face and says, "Were they really that big?". I just nodded my head and he laughed as he walked away to go talk to her. I still wonder if he laughed when he saw that I was not exaggerating.

Now I know that this whole scenario was entirely my fault, and there's really no excuse for it. But I'm going to make one. I was 16 years old. I was an obnoxious little brat. This woman was at least thirty. I'd say even closer to forty. I'm almost 19 now, and I would even have just brushed that whole situation off. What kind of adult threatens to beat up a kid?

Amazingly, my boss never found out about this until I told her about it a year later. I have no clue why. I can only imagine that I was well liked at that truck stop, and certain individuals protected me. Even though I deserved to be fired and probably beaten.