Deliveries

I was helping out at The Store yesterday. The phone rang. Usually it would end after one ring because it would forward to Mother's cellphone. When she worked at The Store she was the one receiving the calls anyway.

But the phone kept ringing. What gives? And Father was upstairs retrieving something. So I did what I usually did when no one was around to pick up the call and I answered it myself.

On the other end was a woman with an accent. The only thing I heard clearly was that she wanted to order. What she wanted to order and what restaurant she was calling from, I couldn't make out. In retrospect I guess I should have called Father and told him to come down; at that point there was a guy who came in wanting anise pods, so he would have had to come down anyway. (People can't come one at a time; they either don't come at all or come all at once.) But after going into back and seeing that he was still busy upstairs, I tried to take the order myself, even though I wouldn't know who it's for.

The woman on the other end didn't seem to understand because she wouldn't give me her order. Finally I told her that Father would be down in about ten or 15 minutes, so she could just call back then. She hung up. And I felt like a loser.

That guy was still there, so I finally called Father. After he was done with him (apparently we don't have anise pods, although I thought we at least sold anise seeds), I told him a call came in. And Father didn't seem to give a fuck. Dude, it's an order! Money!! And you don't care if she calls back or not? I know you're (it's still hard to type this) closing down The Store, but dude, at least fulfill the order!!! But he just checked the Caller ID and sat back down on the barstool next to the cash register. So she's just going to get angry and not use The Store for her orders ever again? And that's OK with him?? Man, there isn't a more depressing sign that my parents are shutting our breadwinner down.

But then, this morning, my phone rang while I was trying to go to sleep. Come early, Father said, because there's a delivery to be made. Shit, there goes the extra half-hour I need to conk off. And then when I get there there's yet another delivery we need to make. Five boxes in all. He gave me the option of using their minivan instead of my car, but I thought it best to use my car so we can just pick up Mother after we're done delivering and take the both of them to the airport. Those darn boxes were so heavy I was afraid they'd buckle my rear struts. But I think they're OK.

So he doesn't answer an order yesterday but we make not one but two deliveries today. To me, that's a sign that there's still business out there. Why not keep going? I know Father wants to retire, but shit, he should just continue to work so that he doesn't stay at home and bothering me.