Mr. Bailey's Bibles and me.

Last night at the bookstore, Mr. Bailey, the hat-wearing, somewhat crazy, possibly homeless regular who has twice before asked me if I was "crippled" and browses the large-print Bibles all the time, shouted at me for about five minutes at the register.

It started simply enough. He put a large-print Bible down. I told him how much it cost. He said it was too expensive. And he stood there for a couple minutes, not doing anything.

John the manager, walking around the registers, saw that Mr. Bailey was making a fuss again - which he did a couple weeks ago - and walked away from the registers.

Mr. Bailey couldn't make a decision. So I put the Bible on a shelf behind me.

And he stared at me for a few minutes and then walked out of the store very slowly, while I waited on other customers.

I figured that was it and that I was done.

But Mr. Bailey came back a half an hour later.

He walked up to my registers, had me get the Bible again, told me how great the Bible in general was and how expensive the one in particular seemed to be.

So he put it down, and I gave him the price. And he told me that it's too much. And then he just stood there, holding up my line.

So I called John the manager, and John started helping the next customer, while listening to what Mr. Bailey is saying to me.

Then, Mr. Bailey yells at me that I'm a rich, white man and I'm trying to cheat him.

And I thought to myself, "Um, if I were rich, would I be working at Barnes & Noble?"

I just repeated the price to him. Over and over. When he would seem confused, I just said, as firmly and calmly as possible, "That'll be $26.99, sir."

Other customers were watching us.

I was shaking, and other customers saw this.

And he started prodding me, "What? Are you gonna cry? Are YOU gonna cry?"

So I put the Bible on the shelf behind me. And John, who is an African American and wasn't thus being called a "rich, white man," voided the transaction.

And Mr. Bailey just stood there. And then Mr. Bailey pulled out his money from the pouch in the overalls he wears everyday.

And I sold him the Bible and handed him the bag.

He didn't walk away.

He asked me for the two Bibles he'd thought he'd purchased, and I had only sold him one. So I showed him the receipt, proving this, and I asked Mr. Bailey, who kept saying "I went up a creek somewhere ... I went up a creek somewhere ...," if he wanted me to get a manager.

John was already standing there, looked at the receipt and told Mr. Bailey that I didn't cheat him.

So Mr. Bailey, who other workers had warned me about when I started working there, started shouting that I'd done him wrong. And that he was never coming into the store again.

But he didn't leave, at first, and he wouldn't take the Bible that he'd paid for.

So I started helping customers from the other side of my register, and they'd just walk around Mr. Bailey as he mumbled and shouted.

Eventually, Mr. Bailey, mumbling still about how we cheated him, walked outside the store - leaving the Bible he'd paid for - and continued to shout from the sidewalk about us and about me, the rich, white man who cheated him.

John was watching him in seeming amazement. I didn't turn around. Eventually, John alerted the security guys, but, by then, Mr. Bailey had walked away.

Chuck, the other manager there last night, told us that he'd seen Mr. Bailey in Publix, where he had been yelling about someone taking his food.

I wanted a break from the registers afterward, but I was the only cashier. Eventually, though, things calmed down.

Mr. Bailey's not usually that volatile with me. Usually, he just asks me for the large-print Bibles. When I walk him to the section, he sees how I'm walking and asks me if I'm crippled. I tell him I have cerebral palsy, and I lead him to the section. He looks at the Bibles for a long time, talks occasionally to himself and to others about how great the Bible is, then tries to put them on hold. Then, he slowly, while talking to himself, makes his way to the door.

It's not one of the more welcome aspects of my job, but I do it.

Management does what they can, I guess, but, on the whole, I thought we're just supposed to ignore him. Mr. Bailey, after all, doesn't appear to know what's going on and seems to get confused.

But I complained after last night.