"Hey there, how are you doing?"

*Fine, thanks. How are you?* There was a long moment of awkward silence before the cashier looked at me in confusion.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" I huffed.

*Rude.*

"Why are you messing with your hands like that?" Oh. She didn't get it.

*And here I thought that people were more polite in person!* I laughed a bit to myself, adopting an old lady voice in my head. *When I was a young girl, people knew how to be polite to their elders.* Actually, was she older than me? Yeah, she was. Just by a year or two. Just two teenagers in a grocery store.

"Service Leader to Register 3, please." Oops.

"Something wrong?" One of the service leaders, basically the managers, was looking between me and the cashier confusedly.

"She's just messing with her hands and not saying anything!" I waved.

*Hi! She can't understand me!* The service leader smiled, nodded at me, and turned to the cashier.

"Her "messing with her hands" is ASL."

"...What?"

"ASL. American Sign Language." The service leader then turned to me and started signing back. It was a little shaky, but she put in more of an effort than just about anyone else did. *Are you doing okay?*

*When I was a young girl, people knew to respect their elders! I will not stand for this blatant disrespect of the elderly!* We both chuckled as the cashier looked on in confusion. *Yeah, I'm fine. I just... don't like talking, and writing stuff takes too long.* Plus it avoids any "voice-based contracts," as I've called them in my head.

*Gotcha.* The service leader reached into her pocket and handed me a coupon for a bit off my order. "Here," she said verbally, "take this for your trouble."

*Thanks a bunch!*