Doing some intense training with some students and stressing the importance of
always checking if a patient has used a product before and if not always
volunteer to do a demonstration give intense counselling and so forth.
A customer not so youngish nor oldish approaches the counter does the quick
glance around and then discretely hands over a box of condoms to my very keen to
help student. I noticed and a terrible thought briefly crossed my mind which I
quickly dismissed, surely they wouldn’t, no of course not……..but they did.
Well they asked the question, “So have you used these before?” The customer’s jaw
almost hit the ground and a multitude of shock, embarrasement and amusement
crossed their face. The customer stood there speechless not sure if a response
was really expected, which was obviously not the best answer as my student
interpreted this to mean ‘no and some help would be appreciated’, despite my
frantic arm waving and head nodding negatively in the background. Well thank God
they went for a verbal explanation as I had my doubts, gosh anything could have
been possible. Other customers were creeping closer and also listening intently
to the incredibly implicit detail, meanwhile the customer whose whole body was
now a bright shade of red had beads of sweat dripping off his forehead was
already twisted in the exit position anxious to make his getaway. My heart went
out to him and I seriously contemplated activating the smoke alarm in the centre
or taking some other drastic measures, crikey how much more was there to tell.
Finally it was over and my student closed the conversation with “and have a nice
weekend won’t you.” And all the other customers smiled at him and assumed obviously the worst..or actually the best.
