A smile can make your day

I pray that I never land up in the dock in our local court.

I had to go to court to obtain some documents, and it was the most traumatic experience of the year… and I’m not even accused of a crime.

I arrived nice and early, but there was a queue from the door to the parking lot. Everyone had to complete a Covid form and, instead of handing the forms out to people to complete while they stand in line, people had to fill it
in at the door – one by one.

After 40 minutes, I reached the front and completed my form.

“Where’s my pen?!” an angry woman in a uniform barked at me.

“As a matter of fact, it’s the state’s pen,” I corrected her.

“And as a taxpayer…” But I decided to stop right there.

I’m a married man and by now I know better than to debate facts with an angry lady.

On the way to the prosecutor’s office, I entered a door with a picture of a little man on it. The room smelt stale. Two of the three urinals were covered in black plastic bags. The other one didn’t work very well either.

The prosecutor was nowhere to be found. I waited for two hours outside her office before she came back from court or wherever with a stack of files.

“Wait outside,” she growled before she darted off again.

And 45 minutes later she was back. “I told you to wait outside!” she said and closed her office door. Half an hour later she allowed me in.

The docket in question was in a mess and the document I needed had disappeared inexplicably.

After four hours, I had to retreat without my document. On the way home, I stopped at my local supermarket for some household provisions.

“Plastic, my love?” the friendly cashier flashed her usual, overfamiliar greeting. I felt the tension flowing from my shoulder muscles.

I don’t think she knew how much her shiny white smile meant to me. But the minister of justice should consider appointing our supermarket’s staff at courts around the country.

Prudence should be the chief prosecutor. I don’t know anything about her qualifications, but one thing I do know is that she will make our local court a much more pleasant experience.

She didn’t even complain when I took her pen.