What Did You Say?

One day, while my grandmother was preparing breakfast, she discovered that she was out of eggs. Since my grandfather was not doing anything at the time, she asked him to go to the store. Even though my grandfather’s native language is Spanish, he knows how to say a few words in English. As he entered the store, he wanted to ask an employee for help, since he was unsure of where to look. The first person he encountered was a young female employee walking down one of the aisles. As he approached her, she politely asked, “How may I help you?” After he responded by saying, “I need eggs, ” the lady looked at him with a nervous expression. Believing that it was his thick accent that was confusing the employee, he repeated the same statement while clucking and flapping his arms. As the employee slowly backed away from my grandfather, she threatened to call the police. Fearing that he did something wrong, my grandfather decided to leave the store. What he found out later was that she had misunderstood what he said—she thought he had said, “I need legs,” instead of” I need eggs.” After that incident, he would not go to the store by himself.