A Little Advice

            Leroy went to work when he was a junior in high school at a neighborhood grocery store.  The old man that owned the little grocery store put Leroy right to work.  Leroy would come to work after school and on Saturdays.  Leroy would sweep and mop the floors and stock the shelves.  Leroy was a very good worker.  He was always on time and the old man really liked him.  The only problem was some of the customers were complaining.  Leroy was honest, smart, and a very hard worker, but he was very ugly.  His ears were too big for his head.  His eyes were too far apart and one seemed to be higher than the other one.  His nose was also too big and looked like it had been broken several times, though it wasn’t.  One side of his mouth seemed to sag.  There was also something strange about his chin, but no one was sure what it was.

            Some of the steady customers that had been coming to the store for years and years began complaining that Leroy scared them and their small children.  The old man really liked Leroy and he didn’t want to lose him.  So he came up with another idea.  He asked Leroy if he had any problems sleeping.  Leroy said he didn’t.  So the old man said that he had been noticing that while Leroy was working the customers got in his way.  So he thought Leroy could start coming in when the store closed.   He told Leroy that when he got out of school to go home and get some sleep and then come in at night.  He didn’t want to tell Leroy what the customers were saying about him.  He did not want to hurt Leroy’s feelings, but Leroy wanted to more than just mop the floors and stock the groceries. He wanted to learn everything about the grocery business.

            So the old man told Leroy that he would stay late every night and teach Leroy everything.  The old man would get a shopping cart and put about twelve to fourteen or more items in and Let Leroy check him out.  He would also let Leroy order the groceries and the produce and other products that the store sold.  Plus he would show Leroy how to do the books and the payroll and make sure everyone got paid on time every month.

            About a year later the old man had a stroke and was forced by his family to sell the store.  The company that bought the store turned it into a parking lot, but by now Leroy knew everything he needed to know to run his own store.  He knew everyone he needed to call to get the groceries and dairy and other products. Leroy went across town and found a store for sale with an apartment above it.  Leroy had saved a lot of the money he made working for the old man and the rest he needed he was able to borrow from the bank.

            The first two weeks were really great.  A lot of people in the neighborhood were coming in to check out the new store.  Leroy had to hire a checker and a high school boy to do the sacking.  Leroy was really happy his store was doing so good.  Then suddenly, people stopped coming to shop.  Leroy thought that the newness of the store had just worn off.  What was really going on was all of the neighborhood people were talking about how ugly Leroy was and they just didn’t want to look at him.