MLAARE -Tortoise

I cringed when I saw him walk into the store.
Our Tortoise Customer.
An older gentleman, who, for like two months strait,
-nearly everyday for two weeks at one point-
Came into the store.
Why?
As by the name.
It was with questions about tortoises and what they needed to be cared for.
It would have been fine, I like customers that have a lot of questions.
But this gentleman.....wouldn't ask new questions.
He would ask the same questions along with new ones.
As if to quadruple check that we would still say the same thing.

Which is difficult if one talks to different employees, because overall, we will say the same thing, but once you get into specifics, opinions can change.

In any case....it's always a hazard to approach this particular customer,
Because you can find yourself standing there 'helping' him for over an hour.
As the way this gentleman talks, it's hard to break away from him.

So, when I saw him come into the store today.
I cringed.
Because I did not want to have to go over the whole Tortoise conversation again.

But finally, after approaching all the other customers nearby to see if they needed help first, I asked him if he was doing alright.

And he simply said "I'm fine, Thank you." and left it at that.

O.o Huh?
What happened to the million questions?! (it's been forever since I've had that short of a conversation with him.)
Apparently...he's finally relaxed about the newest member of their family.

Still, it left me feeling a bit....weird.
I mean, I was relieved to not get stuck with him,
yet I can't help wonder if there was something else underlying his short response.
Maybe he really was content.... I hope so.
But something felt....incomplete....about not talking to him for so long this time around.

-Sarnic Dirchi