A Minor Correction

I’m an aproned home improvement employee. During the school year, I’m a secondary school teacher (ages eleven to eighteen), and I return to the same store each summer.

One summer day, while sitting at my desk for corporate-mandated training, a woman and her two teenage sons came by. After she declines my assistance, I go back to my training.

A few minutes later, the three of them walk past my desk again. This also brings them directly past a smart fridge, which has a Notes app open. One of the teenagers lags behind his family to look at the smart fridge. He quickly looks around for anyone watching him without noticing me.

He leaves a message saying, “[Name] loves minors”, snickering to himself, then catches up with his family.

Happy to escape training for a moment and provide a lesson, I walk to where the mom is browsing. The kid sees me coming and immediately gets nervous, despite the retail smile on my face.

Me: “Hey man, can you please come erase that message you left on the fridge?”

Teen: “Uh, what message? I already erased it—”

Me: “—Oh no, it’s definitely still there! Would you mind erasing it, please?”

I said this with the largest, s***-eating customer service grin.

His Mom: “What ‘message’? What did you do?”

Teen: “Oh, um, yeah, I’ll erase it.”

Me: “Great! Thanks.”

I led him over, and he quickly erased it and did the walk of shame back to his mom, who quickly interrogated him and then gave him an earful as I walked away. Yes, I could have just erased it myself, but nothing teaches a lesson better than immediate consequences and accountability.

CORRECTION: Updated to use “[Name]” as reflected in the original submission.