"He went to the back to get a part," the co-worker said. "Hang on. Here he comes."
Alas, the 22-year-old Dedeaux was too busy to talk then. But later, he left work early to attend to more pressing concerns -- such as his campaign for the District 93 state House of Representatives seat, which he appears to have a good change of winning.
Dedeaux, who lives in the Sellers community in northeast Hancock County, led a trio of candidates in Tuesday's Democratic primary, winning 38 percent of the votes in his district.
He'll face incumbent Harry L. Frierson Jr., also of Hancock County, in the Aug. 29 runoff, and the winnder will face Republican Bill Frisbie in the general election Nov. 7. If he's elected, Dedeaux would be the youngest person in the Legislature.
Suddenly, Dedeaux's retail job is only one of his many tasks. "They're working with me on that," he said, explaining his leaving work early. "They know I have a future."
Hang on. Here he comes.
"I go door-to-door a lot, and people come to the door sometimes and say, 'You're kind of young, aren't you?'" Dedeaux said. "I say, 'No, I'm not kind of young. I'm very young.'
"But I think people are comfortable with that, because they don't feel like I'll have a hidden agenda. And I know enough so that it would be hard for a lobbyist to pull the wool over my eyes."
Dedeaux hopes to ride a wave of national voter disgust with the status quo in government -- especially what voters like to call, sneeringly, "career politicians." Dedeaux thinks that's part of his appeal.
"I'm fascinated by the idea that an ordinary person who's qualified can participate in government," he said.
Dedeaux worked as an intern for five months in Fifth District Rep. Gene Taylor's office in Washington, D.C., as a junior at Mississippi College in Clinton. He graduated last year with a dual bachelor's degree, in political science and modern languages -- Russian and German.
He says politics have always been his passion. Still, he said of Tuesday's primaries: "I did not expect to lead the ticket."