Hemming and hawing

Beating around the bush.....
Classic example.
On my way home and headed back to the bus terminal while I was in the city on Friday, I stopped at one of the wayside vendors who had mandarines available for sale.
Two large wholesale boxes filled with mandarines sat on the ground, while she bagged out packages of seven.
"Seven for five dollars!" she cried.
I did a double take, since mandarines are normally priced at $1.00 each.
Sidling up to make my purchase, there was a guy standing there who seemed very hesitant about making his purchase.
There he was scratching his beard and adjusting his rucksack, and seemed unable to stand still.....walking around the boxes every few minutes.
"How much you selling them for again?" he asked the hawker.
"Seven for five dollars" she replied.
He looks down again at the boxes of mandarines, and just stands there.

Photo from internet images

"Lady, go ahead and get the ones you want, cause he like he ain't ready." she said to me in a business-like but friendly manner.
She handed me  a plastic bag, which I started filling with seven lovely mandarines.
Fresh fruit for breakfast tomorrow morning, I thought.
All the while, the guy is still standing there watching me. I'm beginning to get wary...maybe he plans to rob the lady, and maybe snatch my gold jewelry and run off.  I keep my eye on him, out of the corner of my left eye.
Finally he said, "I don't understand why I can't buy one."
"I'm not selling them in ones, I already told you that," she said to him.
I understood his hesitation to leave, since the mandarines looked juicy and delicious.
If it's one thing I can't stand is a nuisance. He means he wants one mandarine, and Ms.Lady is not selling him one mandarine, yet he isn't moving on.
"What you really want?" I asked him finally.
"One" he replied emphatically.
"Stop hemming and hawing then, here take one of mine."
He reached into the bag, took a mandarine, and was off on his way.

He was not a vagrant, but well dressed and obviously employed.
"I did want to get he from round me every since" the lady shouted. "He gone long and ain't even say thanks, you see dat?"
"Yes I see that," I replied.
I paid her, and wished her a happy weekend and continued walking to the bus terminal.
And there he was, eating that "One" mandarine, and chatting loudly with some other guy outside the post office, with not a care in the world.

I came home with six mandarines.
I know I will enjoy them.
I'm thankful for my manners and for the ability to understand that there are lots of uncouth folks out there, and thankful that I have the patience to live among them.