on the path…”The Tall Man”
Friday, September 28th, 2007I wish there was a “Larry David”, moment in this story and I apologize in advance for the lack of humor. It’s more like a “Jonah” moment. The part where he was in the whale for a long time.
At this point in the story I’m in the whale being swallowed.
As I tried to leave Jack was so mad all he could say was, “I just don’t understand you.” Before I knew it there was a flurry of white shirts and gold hands surrounding me, blocking any exit attempt and summoning the Tall Man in the blue suit.
Before I knew it the Tall Man was my best friend and instead of a lot of jewelery he had a REALLY nice pen. He told me he wanted me to be their 20th customer because he’d get an extra $200 for the day. For some reason this made me think of toasters from the 70’s and if Herb ever got a toaster for buying a car.
The Tall Man was very calm and articulate and wanted to know where negotiations began to break down with Lucky and Jack. I began my story about how, during my time there, I thought I may need something less expensive. The Tall Man gently produced his nice pen and calmly asked what numbers I wanted to pay for the car. I showed him my sharpee numbers.
Lucky was FURIOUS that the Tall Man had become involved. He was scared of him as well. Lucky began talking really fast and really loud. Angry at me. As if I stole his lunch on the playground and the Tall Man was our mediator. Lucky began giving an account of everything he did to help me and how much trouble I had been regarding the color and the stereo from the very start. He began to click again as he spoke. The tall man just raised his Right Hand as if to say, “I’ll handle this now and deal with you later.”
Lucky stopped talking, folded his arms across his chest and slumped down in his chair looking off to the side; pouting. The “Hand” apparently meant he was in time out.
Anyway, the Tall Man’s pen wrote in blue ink and he jotted numbers down on the back of one of the many sheets Jack had printed out. With the calmness of someone who had spent an hour meditating, he asked, “If I can do these numbers will you buy the car.” I said “yes,” because I was tired - and hungry - and I thought my numbers would be scoffed at. He asked me to initial the page. This kind of freaked me out but did it anyway.
The Tall Man asked me sit right there and said he would handle everything. I thought he could be a Ricardo Montelban (sp) impersonator.
He left me there with Lucky who refused to look at me. Lucky just said over and over - “I’m losing a sale, I’M LOSING A SALE! We’re giving you the car!” I asked him if he was going to get a spiff from me being the 20th customer. And all he could say, in a muffled voice, was “WE LOST A SALE.” by this time he was standing over me - I looked up and he had popped his lower teeth out of his mouth unable to get them back in and yell at the same time. I finally realized the clicking sound all this time was Lucky nervously popping his dentures in and out of mouth.
Do you want to go home yet?
more later
Stephen A. Thomas