When I was in high school, I worked at Dunkin Donuts. My favorite part about working there was interacting with different people and hearing their personal stories.
I especially loved chatting with the regulars, who were like old friends stopping by to say hello. But there was one person whose story I remember the most.
This customer always ordered a cup of iced water and a donut to go along with it. He wore the same brown and gold sweater, tattered jeans, and winter cap on his head that smelled something awful each time, even on scorching summer days.
It was odd because he looked like he was homeless and displaced but he never begged for anything and always paid for his donut whenever he got it.
I used to tell my family he had ‘Fear Factor Nails’(it actually should have been ‘Guinness Book of World Records’ nails) that practically curled up and around into spirals and how you could catch whiffs of his stench from miles away. One day, he came into our shop smelling so bad that I became horribly nauseous, which made me upset.
“Why can’t people just take care of themselves?” I whined to a co-worker once he left after that particular visit. “Soap exists and you can buy it for only a dollar; there’s no excuses.”
