ME being ME

Short Story- Can I See the Manager

As she placed her items on the conveyor belt and watched the robotic hands moved the items across the scanner, she quickly reached out and tapped the screen, putting in a sequence of numbers for the manager. 

A beefy man came out from behind a shelf and looked from her to the machine. "Your robot seems to be operating fine, why'd you call for manager?" She shrugged and dropped a bag of radishes onto the ground. "It dropped my groceries," she said, her eyes boring into his. The looked at her confused, "Ma'am I don't know what you're-" but he was cut off as a tall dark-haired man that looked like he could be related to the one who was now going to pick up the bag of radishes the girl had dropped. "Sal, don't worry about her, she's a regular." The man shrugged and waddled back to what he was doing before.

"So, Kelly, back again?"

"Sorry, I just-"

"I know, you like the human contact every once in a while. I don't mind it either. It's partially why I took this job." 

"Yeah," Kelly said, sighing, "Ever since you know... the pandemic, it's like I crave being around people. And now that everything is basically automated..." she shrugged, gazing at the manager as he finished scanning her items for her.

"There you go," he said making his way back around the scanner. He handed her her bag and began to walk away saying, "Nice to see you again Kel."

Kelly started forward and grabbed his arm, he whipped back around, surprised, and a hint of fear in his eyes, "Kelly, you know we can't-" As soon as the words left his mouth, a robotic arm had popped out from the ceiling and forced them apart.

Kelly smiled sadly and left the store with a little wave and mouthed, "Automated."