Good night…

Good morning…

Good afternoon…

Chet had to find his own fun while working as a department-store greeter. Sometimes he said “Good evening” instead of “Good night” to the fancier-looking customers. Sometimes he said it to the disreputable customers, too, but a bit sarcastically, to see if they’d pick it up on it. They usually didn’t.

Every now and then Chet would greet someone with the wrong time of day. “Good afternoon, sir,” he’d say, as the sun was peeking over the mountains. “Good night, ma’am,” while the sun was burning hot overhead. And usually people just continued on into the store, or sometimes smiled at him, like they didn’t even know he had said anything wrong! It was hilarious to Chet that people could be so dumb sometimes.

Chet dreamed of doing something big some day. Something world-changing. He wanted more than the occasional smile-and-nod, or the request for a flyer with the day’s specials. He wasn’t satisfied with having people acknowledge his presence without being aware of his existence, good morning, sir, good afternoon, good night…

And he knew just how he was going to change it. He was going to discover a new time of day. Morning? Unimpressive. Afternoon? Blasé. Night? Nothing good ever happens then.

But during Chet-time, the whole world would sparkle, and everyone would know who he was, even without the name tag.