Lessons Learned From Narcissist Nick
We were at a roadside diner the other day, on our way to Cape Hatteras, when a customer at the table next to us (I’ll call him Narcissist Nick) let fly a string of obscenities. He was yelling about his cold biscuit and chicken, to the entire restaurant, and got up and tossed his plate down by the register. He then returned to his table.
We all stopped chewing simultaneously and looked at each other, very careful not to look at the man who was making the ridiculous scene. Ali and Frank’s eyes were huge, but I chuckled to lessen the stress and rolled my eyes at them. They felt better and went back to chewing. I was silently planning on how to get the children out of there fast if things got out of hand.
A few minutes later, the waitress brought another plate to the man and he yelled directly at her. We had to hand it to her. She yelled right back, telling him she wasn’t the cook. I glanced over and sure felt sorry for the other seven people sitting at his table. I’m sure they were all about as embarrassed as they’d ever been in their lives. The guy kept yelling and Ali couldn’t contain herself anymore. She started laughing out loud, which started Frank laughing and Richard and I started chuckling as well. Max was too engrossed in his fries to notice what was happening just three feet behind his high chair.
We finished our meal and, on the way out, I said loudly, so the entire restaurant could hear, “Oh, and by the way, the food and service were EXCELLENT!” The waitress and manager thanked us profusely and we all had a good laugh about the jerk with no manners…and we knew he could hear us.
While mean people with no manners act like that to make others fear them, this guy had obviously failed. On the way to the RV, we talked to the children about how some people try to manipulate and/or shame others by creating a scene in public places. I asked them if they thought Narcissist Nick had succeeded. Ali and Frank both agreed that the guy had only succeeded in making himself look like a fool and in embarrassing his friends and family.
Oh, if you want to see how close Narcissist Nick was sitting to Max, check out the guy in the green shirt in this picture.
