Will no one rid me of this troublesome client?
I show up, precisely at 7:15 am, as promised. Yes, it is certainly earlier than most of my first calls of the day. But seeing as though this client had begged, yea, implored Tech Support for someone with extensive knowledge of blade servers, I relented and agreed to show up at that un-divinity like hour.
And did I get a gracious “Good Morning, Sistertech”? No. A complaint was the first thing out of his mouth.
“You’re late! Don’t think I’m gonna pay you that extra hour!”
“Late? What hour?”
“You were supposed to be here at 6:15!” He spoke with such vile. I’ve never met a client at the door who was this upset. There was so much spittle flying from his mouth my forefeathers were getting wet.
“Dear brother, I assure you that I have arrived precisely as scheduled. You said 7:15am and…”
Not another word left my mouth before he whirled around and marched toward the back of the room. He continued to yell. I couldn’t quite make out everything he was saying. I believe it had something to do with wanting the One In Charge building a bridge or some kind of structure involving water.
I whispered to myself, “No chance of that happening, Buster! Not with that attitude.”
I stopped to make a note of the client’s temper and insufferable attitude, but could not help smiling. (Note to self: Practice keeping a straight face in such situations.) He saw me.
He screamed, “And wipe that angelic smile off your face! You think you’re gonna just swoop in here and fix everything? The tech from HP couldn’t. You don’t look like you could untie the knot in my shoe laces. And I’ve got a room full of cable mess is there. Honestly, you people!”
“But brother, I’m not a…”
“Don’t ‘brother’ me. I’m not your brother. You got that? Stop it with the ‘brother’ routine!”
He was right, of course. Technically speaking each of us is a separate species. But The One In Charge is rather big on us blending in and treating our clients as they would be treated if The One In Charge were dealing with them directly: just one big happy family.
“Will no one rid me of this troublesome client?” I thought, almost a little too out loud.
Sistertech squared her shoulders, surveyed the cable mess and the scattered blades and enclosures on the floor. The client was still blabbing away. But Sistertech? She had all The Documentation she needed. I stood up to my full height. We don’t often pull rank like this, but the guy was being a real pain. It was time to put the fear of The One In Charge into him.
It worked.
The guy was clearly frightened. The stunt sort of backfired, though, as he was now stammering incoherently.
And thus Sistertech spoke, saying: “Do not be afraid. I come to do a good deed.” And then, as Sistertech unfurled her wings, the light from The One In Charge came down and shone upon her. And Sistertech spoke to the man in her most Gabriel-like voice, and proclaimed the glorious words of I Peter 2:15
For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
Haven’t heard a peep from him the rest of the day.