Woody G.

So, yesterday at work, I discovered a CD that was set aside to be returned. It was songs written by Woody Guthrie about Chanukah.

The amused me greatly. (Both because I'd studied the Guthrie family during my trip to MA and because I knew that Woody Guthrie was not Jewish)

I told a co-worker. He shared in my amusement, examining all of the track titles. He said that the CD had been sitting on a hidden shelf by the cash registers for weeks. It wasn't one of the CDs we were supposed to stock. Somebody had probably ordered it and then decided they didn't want it.

I went to the back room where we put the merchandise that is to be returned. Bob, one of the managers, happened to be back there. Since I was in a good mood, I told him about the CD too (naturally by "told him" included jumping around, swinging my arms, yelling "look what I found" etc.).

He responded by saying, "It finally came! I've been waiting for weeks!"

To which I replied, "huh?"

"You must have known I ordered it."

"No." I examined Bob's face, trying to see if he was joking. Bob had never mentioned a love for Guthrie lyrics. He looked sincere: all smiling and twinkling eyes. But Bob did receive a PhD in drama. Surely, the man could act. "I was going to return it. You ordered this? Are you serious?"

"Of course. You must have known it was me. The computer would have said. Are you kidding me?"

We stared at each other for a few seconds, trying to figure out who was playing whom. Finally, Bob told me about how he'd heard of the CD on NPR and tried to track it down (which had been almost impossible). So, I took the CD back downstairs, attached a sticky note with Bob's name and a smiley face on it. I put it with all the other employee orders. Then I looked up the CD on the computer, curious as to why a form with Bob's information hadn't automatically been added (as happens with all orders before they're sent to the cash registers). The CD wasn't recorded as being an order. So I looked up orders placed by Bob. I found the CD listed, but it was recorded as being cancelled by the vendor. Strange, but not unusual for those impossible-to-find items. So apparently, the vendor had sent the item and cancelled it somewhere along the way, meaning when it arrived, it wasn't included with the orders and Bob was never told about it.

We figure the CD had been floating around the store for weeks. If Bob hadn't been in that back room and I hadn't been in such a silly mood, the CD would have been returned and Bob would have never known.