A doctor, a lawyer, and a writer stood outside a department store on the day after Thanksgiving waiting to be let in for the big sale.
The doctor said, “I should go in first because of all the lives I saved with my prowess as a surgeon. I need to get back to the operating room.”
The lawyer said, “I should go in first because of all the bad people I put in prison so that they couldn’t hurt anybody anymore. In fact, I have another case to try in a few hours.”
After a few moments of silence, the doctor and the lawyer turned to the writer.
“Well?” the doctor asked.
“Don’t you want to go in first?” the lawyer asked.
“No,” the writer said. “All I want to get is my tea mug that I left in there last night when I was helping them put out the stock. This is my seasonal job to make ends meet. I have to work here to help out my dad, whose in the hospital with chest problems, my younger brother who has a learning disability, and my grandmother, who could go to jail for shoplifting to help pay for her medications.”
They were so stunned that when the doors opened, he walked inside ahead of them and got what he wanted. He didn’t work there, and his parents and brother were fine. They were waiting in line at other stores. He was, after all, a fiction writer.
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