Gas Station Giggle

Next door to where I live, there's a gas station (not that you would know it...it's not like any one I'd ever seen before).

In the nearly four years that I've known Krim, the attendant, he's barely cracked a smile. Then yesterday, as I came home from a stroll, I looked over and saw him hopping up and down like Rumpelstiltskin.

Woah, this I had to check out.

As I approached Krim, he looked at my baby in his stroller and with a grin so big that I saw all of his teeth (very nice ones, nice and white, I didn't realize they were so big...), he started babbling about how it's good that I have a boy because in his country (Morrocco) boys are good and something something about girls, followed by peals of laughter and more hopping up and down on one foot (I was waiting for spun gold to come out of him).

I looked from him to his co-worker Said, who had tears running down his cheeks, and asked him what it was about girls that I missed. Said took a break from laughing and said, "I don't know, but he's funny today".

Now either Krim was drunk or something else was up.

What do you think?

After some prodding, which left me with tears running down my face, I finally found out that it wasn't the sunny day that brought on this rare ebulience.

It was a visit to the medical center, next door to the gas station, where he had a load of blood drawn for tests, followed by a chug of coffee at the cafe across the street.

Ah, if that's what it takes to bring laughter to Paris!