speedphreak

I go to Meijer tonight to pick up a thermostat for my car and some oil. I swing into the bathroom first and sidle up to the porcelin. A small tow-headed boy, I'd say 8 maybe 9 years old comes in and takes his place at the adjacent urinal. He looks over at me and says "What's your name?". I look down at him, tell him my name and ask for his. Hey, common courtesy right? He informs me that his name is Alex.

I finish my business and turn to the sink to wash my hands, he does the same and says something. I ask "What?" because I couldn't hear him and he repeats "You're cool, just like my dad!"

I say "Thanks!" and move on to the hot air hand dryer.

He goes on to say that I am cooler than his dad, so I turn to him and ask "Why is that?" to which he replies "because my dad chain-smokes.....and he slapped me real hard here". He points to the side of his upper thigh. The boy told me that it was so hard it left defined finger marks that were still there.

This kinda bothered me.

I said to him "Well, that's not cool", "That's not cool at all" , and he agreed.

We walked out the door together and went out seperate ways.

The whole incident was kinda weird and I don't know if I should have gotten involved further in some manner?

Should I have questioned him further? Gave him the number to Child Protective Services? Taken him to the store service desk? Followed him to see how his dad acted?

The kid was clean with decent clothes. I noticed that he didn't really use the urinal and didn't really wash his hands at the sink. He was smiley and friendly and didn't act nervous or scared or anything like that. I'm real good at reading people and I didn't pick up any overt cry for help, it was more like a chatty kid.

Now I don't know though, did I just have an odd moment or did I miss an opportunity to help?

Damn.