The Legacy of Yeah! Man

"What the hell is going on in this place?"

Synopsis:
       As I was working the cafe one day, I began to hear noises from the front of the store. It wasn't until later that I had found out that the yells I was hearing, were coming from a grown haggard looking man that screamed one word and one word only... and that was "YEAH!". This story describes my very first encounter with Yeah! Man capturing him in all of his glory.




An Excerpt from the story: The Legacy of Yeah! Man:

I continued working my shift after Janessa had left, it was busy with a steady line of never ending customers, but nothing out of the norm had happened. It was then, a few hours into my shift, as I was steaming milk for a customer’s latte that I heard a loud yell echoing throughout the store. The clarity had been distorted over the loudness of the steamer, yet I knew I had heard something. Looking out over the seating area, I saw multiple customers glaring toward the very front of the store. Seeing this reassured me that one, I wasn’t going insane, and two, that something was happening by the front doors.

I tried to look and see if there was any commotion up front, maybe someone was getting arrested for stealing, but I saw none of this. “That’s odd” I thought as I placed the latte on the counter for the customer. The woman had been looking away from me, seeming to be searching for the source of the sound she had just heard.

Then suddenly, the sound was heard again, yet with much more clarity,

YEAH!

I could understand now what was being said, somebody was screaming “YEAH!” yet the sound had come from a new position now, toward the left side of the store near our kids department.

“What is that?” the woman asked me as she turned around to take her latte.

“I have no idea” I said shaking my head, “Most likely its some kids messing around; a manager will kick them out shortly, sorry for the inconvenience.”

“Oh don’t be sorry, I just didn’t know what was going on.”

“Yeah me neith-“

YEAH!

 The sound was now moving toward the café.

“It’s strange” the woman added, “That doesn’t sound like a kid’s voice.”

I had agreed and realized that the managers were not moving frantically from the customer service counter to kick whoever was yelling out as they normally would have. It was then that I saw a man, who had to have been in his early fifties, balding and haggard looking with raggedy clothing walking away from the kids department, around the curved railing of the café. I had my glare set on him now, waiting for him to come up and start complaining about the noise. Yet right as he passed by the stairs, leading up to the café, He cocked his head backward with his mouth facing the ceiling and blasted out and ear piercingly loud YEAH! as his head twitched violently. All the customers in the vicinity either turned their heads or jumped in their seats as he yelled.

“Oh my” the woman said, “It sure seems you guys always have your hands full in this place.”

I laughed as I shook my head and said, “You have no Idea.”

“You try and have a good day now, thank you for the drink” she said as she began walking away. I had realized at this point that the man yelling definitely had some sort of problem, most likely Turrets Syndrome, and if that what it was, he damn sure had it bad.  

After I had helped out another customer, I went around the cafe collecting some magazines, which our lovely customers love to read, ruin, and then leave scattered for us to pick up. As I was walking toward the cafe stairs that led to the book floor, I was able to see the man walking around our music department, browsing a selection of marked down DVD’s.

YEAH!

Another yell was heard, I had started to hear laughter from parts of the store as I walked toward the customer service desk where Gregory was standing. As I was about the ask Greg what was up with the guy, a enraged woman came up and said,

"What the hell is going on in this place? Who the hell is yelling? I can't even concentrate on my magazines."

Greg sighed and replied, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience maim, but the man yelling has something wrong with him, I believe he has Turrets. He's a paying customer and I can't kick him out for having a disor-" YEAH! "...der"

The woman started laughing as the yell interrupted Greg's speaking.

"I thought it was some delinquents making a scene" the woman said as she laughed and walked away. Greg then turned toward me as I was standing there laughing at the situation as well.

"What's up?" Greg asked.

"Nothing, I was just about to ask the same question, I heard the guy yelling and had no idea what was going on at first."

Greg laughed, "Yeah, he tends to come in on Saturdays; he wanders around a bit till he ends up in the music department."

YEAH! YEAH! Coughing YEAH!

Greg looked around at all the customers becoming annoyed.

"And this is the part where people start getting really pissed off,” Greg said, “When he goes back there. It’s like when he's walking around he doesn't do it so often, but when he starts reading through titles in the back there, he starts blasting them off rapid fire."   

YEAH!

"This is awesome" I said laughingly.

At this point I had dropped off the gift of magazines from our lovely customers, mostly filled with ever so important celebrity news, and started to head back up to the cafe where there was a man in business attire waiting in line. I got back behind the counter and proceeded to ask, "Hey how's it go-"

"I need a small coffee, 3 sugars and whip" he said, interrupting my greeting.

"Alright" I said and proceeded to make him his damn coffee. Before I could even tell him the price he demanded,

“How much?" tapping his wallet on the counter.

YEAH! The yelling started up again

"1.79" I replied. But what I had wanted to say was "1.79 you ungrateful mother fucker" but I refrained from doing so.

The man heard the yell, and from the look on his face, was immediately bothered by the noise, yet he surprisingly didn't say anything. He had carried a brief case with him which he brought down to the other set of comfy chairs set up near the wall separating the music department from the book floor. He had sat down and removed his laptop from the brief case while he was sipping on his drink.

YEAH!

The business man had heard the yell again, as he was searching the web, soaking up the bandwidth of our free wireless internet our store graciously provides to these assholes. He looked around the store to see where it was coming from, and then returned his glare to the screen.

YEAH!

The man’s face turned from serious to angry as he looked up again from his screen. He then mouthed the words, "That's fucking it" which I couldn't hear very well from the cafe, but it was obvious what he said. He put his laptop aside and got up out of his chair to walk toward the source, which had been right behind him. The wall dividing the book floor and music department housed books on one side and DVD’s on the other, which was where the crazed man yelling had been standing, looking through the selection.

As the business man closed in on the culprit behind the wall, another loud “YEAH!” was let off. The man was now locked on to the target, as his walk quickened to a semi-jog. And just as he was poking his head over the wall, the crazed man's head cocked back and he let of the loudest “YEAH!” of the day, right in the business man’s face.

I had begun to hysterically laugh all by myself up in the cafe as I watched this situation unfold. The man’s face turned from angry to smiling in less than a second, as he belted out laughing, realizing it was a crazed grown man yelling and not some punk kids. Shaking his head he returned to his chair laughing and continued with his work as Yeah! Man, as I named him after this day, continued belting off his “Yeah!”...