The Strange Things People Do

On the way back to work today we pulled up to the neighborhood gas station. We waited for a woman in a white Fiat Panda to drive away, since she had been sitting in her car for a little while. We assumed that she would pull her seatbelt on at any moment and drive away, seeing as she was blocking the pumps. After a few more minutes, we gave up and pulled into the adjacent pump and pulled the fueling hose to the gas tank over the car, onto the opposite side. We looked over at her, and to both of our amazement, she was casually turning the pages of a newspaper on her lap while smoking! As I finished fueling, she rolled down her window, flicked the lit cigarette into the station, folded up the newspaper, took off her seatbelt, and.... opened the door and began fueling.

I found this experience to be remarkable not solely because it reminded me how singularly, amazingly, fantastically inconsiderate people can be, but also because it showed me how much we want to believe that people aren't sociopaths. When we pulled up and she wasn't moving, I wanted to believe that she was about to pull away. When she didn't, I assumed that it was because her friend or husband was inside paying. When I saw her reading her paper and smoking, I assumed the same thing. I had a little twinge of doubt when the only other person at the cashiers desk came out, got into a delivery van and drove away. Watching her draw long drags on that cigarette, it really never occured to me that she hadn't even started fueling up yet.