Last night we went out to a movie theater. They had a sign

Posted on: March 17, 2024 at 08:49:39 CT

displayed at the counter indicating their servers were down. Consequently, they couldn't accept credit cards and they were accepting payment in cash only. The sign asked customers to excuse the inconvenience. I asked for two tickets and two small popcorns. The high school aged kid behind the counter wrote out my order, including the respective prices on a scribble sheet and then proceeded to add up the total on his cell phone. He told me my order came to $32. I handed the kid two $20 bills and he looked at them for a moment before going back to his cell phone to figure out my change. He was taking a relatively long time, so I told him the change would be $8 and I explained that 40 minus 32 equaled 8. He didn't take my word for it and continued to fiddle with his cell phone, which finally confirmed my math was correct. As he handed me my $8 in change, he admitted that he was not good at math. I wondered what he was good at.

About 15 minutes later I went back to the snack counter and asked for two waters. A different high school aged kid waited on me and he went through the same process as the other kid had. After checking the order total on his cell phone he asked me for $9.50. I handed him a $10 bill and he held onto the bill as he consulted his cell phone to determine the answer to the riddle of 10 minus 9.50. After about 30 seconds, he found the answer and handed me my $0.50 in change and the two bottles of water. I estimated both young men were 17 to 18 years old and white. The theater was located in Columbia.