…is the younger of John and Kim’s two children. He turns nine this month. Like squirrels, Kennedy doesn’t walk. His natural pace is sprint. The rest of him has no trouble keeping up with the energy introduced by his legs.
The Weller Way family had stopped at Costco before a trip, planning to pick up lunch to eat on the road. The Sacramento Costco has kiosks out front for ordering. Kennedy asked to press the buttons to order the meals for the four of them, then pocketed the receipt. Next they joined a fifteen minute line along with other hungry shoppers, waiting for their $1.50 hot dog, drink (with free refills), their chicken bakes, slices of pepperoni pizza. Weller had a tight schedule, made tighter by the length of the line. When they appeared at the front the employee asked for the receipt. John said, “Kennedy, give it to her.” Kennedy turned and said, “I gave it back to you!” John said, “No, you didn’t. You have it.” Kennedy insisted that he had given it back. Kim asked the employee if they could have the food without the receipt, but she insisted that they had to give her the receipt before she could give them their order. “No receipt, no food,” she said. Embarrassed at holding up the line, John and Kim had to decide whether to go back to the kiosk, pay again, then stand in the line for an interminable length of time, time they didn’t have. They left hungry. They left angry.
TJ is in charge of customer relations at Costco. He learned about the commotion at the food court window and looked back at the video. He was able to track down John and Kim and called them on the phone, introducing himself and telling them this: “I looked at the store video. Your son picked up the receipt from the kiosk and threw it into the trash. If there’s anything else I can do for you, please let me know. I’m TJ.” Kim thanked him for the call.
They confronted Kennedy and told him that it was all on video. He stopped, took a deep breath, looked at them and said, “True, I did.” The focus wasn’t on why he threw it away. They focused on the lie, how doubling down made it so much worse.
We’ve all been there. We’ve tried to extricate ourselves from predicaments by making the hole we’re standing in deeper. And we’ve all been there as parents, too, hearing stories denying the justifiable suspicions we know to be true. Growing up takes a long time. More than nine years.