The Hazel Project

This is a little story of how Lucky the car salesman began referring to me as Mr. Stephen.

After I gave Lucky my phone number I knew he’d begin calling me. And the first few times were easy enough to screen. But honestly, sometimes, I want to hear what Lucky has to say.

What I think I really want him to say is “We just received a pre owned Silver Mica Pine Prius Option 6 with 10,000 miles on it; We’re selling it to you especially for Seventeen Grand, Tax and Title included. Plus we’re offering zero percent financing today ONLY…Because I’m Lucky and I beat every deal!”

These are some of my favorite words that I want to hear from Lucky’s golden tongue-with appropriate bejeweled hand gestures.

Instead, this is what he said.

“Hello Stephen we have just gotten in several Prius. One has the option 6 that you wanted with JBL stereo and it only has 35,000 miles on it with the stickers!”

“The carpool stickers?” I ask.

“Yes option 6 with the very valuable carpool stickers.”

“How much are you asking for a used Prius Lucky?” My interest is piqued.

“Only twenty nine thousand.”

“Well what color is it?” I ask.

“OH it’s Blue but it’s option 6 like you want. And you know Stephen, that it’s very hard to find option 6.”

“So, Stephen do you think you would like to come in and take a test drive?”

At this point I became…well; pissed off. I was surprised how easy it was to talk. It was like I just opened my mouth and something like these words came out really fast.

“Lucky why do you want to sell me a used Prius with 35,000 miles on it for almost thirty thousand dollars, You know that a brand new Prius goes for twenty seven grand, That’s almost three grand over retail for a USED car Lucky and I know it’s because of those carpool stickers you think you can ask for more than what a new Prius is worth But 35,000 miles? You gotta BE KIDDING me, I drive against traffic everyday and have no need to pay extra for carpool stickers on a used car. On top of all that the car is BLUE and if I’m going to pay over twenty grand for a Prius I’m going to get the color I want and the only color I’m interested in is SILVERMICAPINE! SILVERMICAPINE LUCKY!”

“Yes MR. Stephen Yes. I understand. I will call back when I get in the Silver Pine.

Adding Mr. in front of Stephen was swift and subtle and held a certain power at first. Then I was embarrassed because I was unable to tell if my words came from a place of anger or a place of standing up for myself. As if to say ‘Respect my money and time, I’m not a schmuck.’

Whatever the reasons are, I’m Mr. Stephen now. It finally feels like I earned it. All thanks to Lucky.

Thanks for checking in.

Stephen A. Thomas

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 9:44 pm and is filed under on the path, posts & stories . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.