Folks, in these turbulent times, it’s important to look out for your friends and neighbors.

And this story is a good example of what I’m talking about!

It comes to us from Reddit’s “Tales From Retail” page and we think it’ll warm your heart and give you a reminder to check in on the people in your life.

Start now!

The time I followed a costumer back to his house.

“A while back, when I was sixteen, I had taken a job at a local grocery store. I lived in a small town, and even through the store was quite small, it was the largest one in the county.

I had nearly worked for two months at the local grocery store when this occurrence happened. I was nearing the end of my shift on a Saturday afternoon, it hadn’t been a particularly busy day, despite it being a weekend, and I can recall myself quite bored when the old man walked into the store.

The old man, who’s name I will change for the sake of the story to David, had been a regular customer, spending a few hundred dollars a week. He was usually upbeat and enthusiastic, but today he was distant and fatigued.

“How are you doing, sir?” I asked from behind the counter.

“OK, it’s been a long day.” David replied without his usual cheer.

He then shuffled away into the aisles. Minutes passed and I waited patiently in the seat which was positioned behind the cash register, but after awhile I went to look for him, to see if he needed any assistance.

I searched the store, caressing overstocked aisles with a looking eye, when I finally found him in the far right corner looking at the outdoors merchandise we carried, which consisted of rope, a few cheap tents, bug spray, and various other things you’d need to bring for a typical night of camping.

Something was off about David…

David had a cheep twelve pack of beer in one hand, and was the examining the different ropes with another. “Hello David.” I said. The store staff were quite friendly with the old man, or at least enough that we called him by his first name. “Do you need help with anything?”

“Which rope do you think is the strongest?” There were only four different of rope, and I honestly had completely no clue which one was the most durable, so I picked at random, pointing at a blue one.

Then he gave me a measurement, and I cut the certain length, then took the rope to the cash register so he could pay. David followed slowly, a mopish jaunt.

The receipt took a while to print, the printer was old and dawdling, and so after I had scanned the rope and beer I tried to converse with David.

I looked at the rope, and the weary expression on the old man’s face. “Are you sure everything is OK?”

“Could be better, could be worse.” David said with stale tone.

“Alright then,” I said smiling,”here’s your receipt.”

As he walked out of the store, I went to my manager. I told him of the recent occurrence, and he was slightly concerned. David was a regular customer, spent a lot of money in the store, and also was the owner’s good friend.

They had to find out what was going on.

So due to the fact that David lived about a block away, the manager had the bright idea of sending me out to monitor the old man.

I protested at first, but gave when I realized that I’d be basically getting paid to watch a house, but what I could possibly do to prevent a suicide was beyond me. I walked out of the store with a hoodie on, it was nearing spring but it was still brisk outside. My breath misted faintly in the air.

I walked down the street trailing David, feeling like a total moron. Fortunately, I had an MP3 player in my pocket, so I could listen to music while doing my detective work.

After two corners, David’s house was in sight and I decided to wait it out on a bench in front of a auto store about 50 yards away from the shabby, two-story house.

Ten minutes passed without anything eventful, then fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, but after about maybe 25 minutes, I saw David.

The old man’s backyard was surrounded by a tall, wooden fence and had a huge, branched oak tree in the middle.

Oh no…

David was ambling up the tree’s broad branches with the blue rope coiled around his arm. When he reached the middle branch, he stopped, and tied an end of the rope around it in a wide knot.

He then descended back down the oak, and disappeared behind the wooden fence. Another bout of minutes passed, I felt a nervous twinge of expected excitement in my chest, the rope glared at me like an impending doom.

The afternoon sun was setting, and it loomed over David’s house with a glaring tint. I had to squint my eyes at the house, and even then it was hard to see. The sun continued to decline, it grew colder, and I grew more jittery with every moment. The blue rope swayed in a slight breeze.

Finally, a figure appeared, two figures actually, to stand on top of the fence frame. One the slime frame of a young girl, the other of the old man. David had the rope held in his hand, but quickly put it around the girls…neck?

I couldn’t tell with the distance, but the way the girl was shaking shrieked of approaching disaster. Was David hanging a child?

I stood up abruptly, yanking out my ear buds with a contorted twist of my hand, and began to amble toward the house.

Everything was as if it was in slow motion, my feet speeding forward faster than I ever think they’ve gone before, David shoving the girl of the top of the fence connected to the rope tied to the branch of the oak tree.

“Holy hell!” I shouted.

A scream sounded from the other side of the fence, and the rope went slack. I scaled the wooden fence with an untapped agility, landing on the other side with a heavy thud.

I once again stood up, scanning the grass lawn with ninja-like eyes. There was David, standing on top of the fence smiling down at the frame of the girl who…held the slender blue rope in her hands.

Oh…everything was okay…

Two other girls were standing underneath the tree, yelling words of encouragement, but they stopped abruptly when they saw the sight of me, a hooded teenager with eyes pulsing with adrenaline.

I stared at them awkwardly, then turned to David and apologized profusely. It turns out those were his grandkids, and he was caring for them for the weekend.

The reason he had looked so distant and fatigued was because, well, he had been caring for three grand kids for the weekend. The rope was used for a rope swing to entertain his granddaughters.

After I told why I had so unexpectedly appeared in his back lawn, he laughed almost as profusely as I had apologized.

It became a joke between us and the store, and the story was told for years afterward.”

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Looking out for your fellow humans!

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If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.