The Name Experiment

I tried an experiment today.
It didn’t start out as one.
It just ended up as an experiment.

It happened at the Washtenaw Panera.
I ordered my lunch and responded ‘for here’.
I thought I would get one of those big blue beepers.

Instead, the man at the counter asked me my name.
I said ‘Lakshmi’ wondering whether to spell it out as usual.
I didn’t. I noticed he typed some letters on the keyboard regardless.

He told me to step to the end of the counter and my name would be called soon. Now I was curious. There was only one person ahead of me and she soon left.
Within a minute, the Asian girl at the counter looked up at me to give me my order.

Oh, I thought, that was easy. Nobody had to say anything.
Except that she did. Before I took my tray, she said, ‘Lashmi?”
Now that was pretty good for not having given any lessons to either of them.

I am grateful to NPR for hiring Lakshmi Singh.
It has made ‘Lakshmi’ almost as familiar as ‘Michelle’.
I didn’t think the man at the counter listened to NPR. Maybe he does.