Oh, No! A Purple Vaccine Dispenser!

I’m neurodivergent and work in a grocery store self-checkout. If I’m not constantly occupied, I tend to zone out, so to prevent that, I have a purple fidget toy clipped to my belt at all times.

A middle-aged customer comes through the self-checkout with her young son in the cart. He sees my fidget toy and points excitedly.

Kid: *To me* “What’s that?“

Me: “It’s a fidget to—”

Customer: *Looking horrified* “[Kid], let’s go!”

She then took her cart and her son as far away from me as possible. I’m still not sure if she was embarrassed that he was asking or if she didn’t want him to “catch the autism”.