Conversation I overheard at the pharmacy while waiting for a prescription for eczema that wasn’t ready…

Two elderly gentlemen are sitting on a wooden bench inside the pharmacy area very close to one another. Dude 2 has a bandana around his thin hairy neck that he is using for a mask but has it completely off his face so it looks like handkerchief ascot. His hair is shoulder length and he is laid back on the bench, adjusting his hair away from his eyes every couple of seconds. There’s gray at the temples. The other Dude is morbidly obese, sitting stiffly upright and appears very tall while sitting, his shoes are too tight as well as his teeshirt and shorts and he has a scruffy white beard, short wet white hair on his head that looks like sweat and the mask isn’t large enough to cover his new scruff on his chin and the rest of his face at the same time so its resting high on his nose and his bottom lip has to pull the mask down over itself, by him pouting and lifting his chin toward the ceiling. He does this frequently throughout the conversation and never uses his hands. I’m standing in line waiting for my turn at the counter to the right of them and every time they speak, they look up at me as if I’m supposed to interject something, but I don’t say a word.

Dude: Problem is, you can’t trust people. I don’t do anything with finances online. My mother checks her bank account balance every day, it’s really bad in the world. I just don’t feel comfortable giving people my account numbers online or any information, it’s sad but you can get robbed blind if you aren’t careful.

Dude 2: I know a guy, buying a house right? Sends them 400,000 online. Calls to check, they say they never got the money. 400K gone just like that, poof. He goes I sent it but they say we never got it. 400k, gone, no trace. poof.

I’m checking my phone. I’ve been waiting 20 minutes. They texted me it was ready but the lobby is full, people are everywhere waiting for shots but not prescriptions.

Dude: It’s why you gotta have some high powered people in your pocket. People who know things and can do stuff. Those kind of people are important. They’ll help ya get things done. They are all drunks but hey, they gotta be with the kind of stuff they deal with you know?

I’m holding an 18 pack and he’s staring at me.

Dude 2: Did I ever tell you about my friend who gave a pizza restaurant to a friend? Yeah, he owned a few houses in Vegas, had a rental unit out here in Sac passed down from his family you know and turns out he also owned a pizza restaurant… well one of his friends had a sick kid, she had down syndrome or something, so he just gifted her the pizza restaurant so she’d have something in life when she grew up. He just called her one day and was like do you like pizza? Well you have a pizza restaurant now.

My phone is about to die. I thought this would be a quick trip and I’m on call at work. If I can’t be contacted it will be drama. I need to get the fuck outta here and get home. I got zero bars. The pharmacists are overwhelmed with drive in folk and appointments for shots. The lady ahead of me said, when I asked if I could sit my beer and make-up remover towelettes down next to her on the counter because my arm was getting tired, she said oh sweetie yes, it’ll be more than a minute, I’ve been here a long while.

Lady ahead of me: You have to do your reservations for the Covid Vaccine online guys, I just asked.

Dude: Well you gotta computer there in your purse so you can fill it out for us?

Lady ahead of me: Ha ha ha. No sorry.

Dude 2: Well I can barely use my phone, the one I keep losing. Come on, I guess we’re outta here.

…My cream will be ready in a few days.
The older gentlemen wander off.
The lady ahead of me turned to me and pulled down her mask and said well I tried to be helpful, I got my shots months ago.

I just shrugged.

The pharmacy didn’t mean to text me to come by it was an accident… they checked a few locations since they told me to come and no one else has it either. I bought my other items.
The lady ahead of me was told her medicines were only going to be half covered and she still owed 100.00. She said that wasn’t right it should be 10 dollars so they told her to sit down and vaccinated two of the people who were growing impatient.
The lady called a friend and started asking them if they were coming to the party tonight while she waited.

They’ll order my cream for me and text me again when it actually is on the shelf. I have to work two extra hours tonight now…