The same woman works all five days. I have no idea what her exact shift is, but it definitely includes this time because she's the only person I'd ever seen there in the mornings.
Every few days, this woman (let's call her Susan because it sounds like snoozin) is asleep when I pull up to the tollbooth. She's literally asleep on the job, she's sitting up, she has coins in her hand, leaning out the window a little, she's just asleep. Susan usually wakes up when I say "Good morning!" really loudly. Sometimes I have to honk my horn a little. She just wakes up and proceeds to give me her change while in a zombie-like state. She then falls back into her sleepy trance, like a robot at Disney World that comes alive when your tram passes by and then turns lifeless when you leave.
A few weeks ago, I got to the entrance a little after seven. I was running late compared to my usual schedule and the closer to eight that you get on this road, the worse your commute will be (traffic here is insanity, if you go in at the wrong time, it can take you an hour to move less than two miles) so there were many people behind me in the toll line. I pulled up to the booth and the doors were closed. There was a car next to the booth, but no person. I started yelling for someone, but no one was there. The line of cars kept growing, and it started backing up the road you turn from. People start honking at me, I start honking, its like a chorus of geese. I stood up in my seat a little, and I saw Susan in the back, asleep. She even had a little blanket on her. I don't know how soundproof those booths are, but she stirred a few times and didn't wake up. It took me a few minutes to find change in my seats, and I was lucky I had change. I mean, I'm not going to get out of my car unless I absolutely have to. Its dark, its cold, I could get hit by some half-asleep workaholic.
I didn't turn her in because I figured someone else would, perhaps someone who was late to an important meeting and only had a 10, maybe a fellow government worker. Well, I don't know if someone did or not, but guess who took my dollar bill and made it two quarters yesterday? Susan.
