perception & reception

Last week, I came around the block on my way to the laboratory.  A man approached me in a near panic: “Where’s Receiving?!”  He took me by surprise and I did not immediately recognize what it was he was asking. 

“Receiving for what?”  I guessed that he was referring to the Shipping & Receiving area for one of the buildings.  But then it came to me quickly: he was asking about the City Receiving Hospital. 

 He asked me, not only because he really needed to know, but, because he figured I would know.  He figured I would know because he thought I was a doctor.  He thought I was a doctor because I was wearing scrubs.  But I was wearing scrubs because I was on my way to embalming laboratory.  I did, of course, know where the hospital was, but not because of my familiarity with its waiting room, but rather its morgue.