Patience Pays. Sometimes

​                     Books by Patti Liszkay available on Amazon:   
     "Equal And Opposite Reactions"      http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
     "Hail Mary"                                           https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
     "Tropical Depression"                        https://www.amzn.com/B0BTPN7NYY

​Patience Pays. Sometimes

       Last week I was in Los Angeles where I was baking pastries for a large celebration being put on by my L.A. hosts.
​         The pastries:

    Chocolate chip cookies,

        Rosette mini-cupcakes,

      Cherry kinffles,

       Lemon squares,

       Brownies

        Several days into my visit it became clear that I really needed to rent a car for the rest of the trip. Not being that familiar with the vast Los Angeles roadscape and also not wanting to take any more time than necessary away from my baking, I looked for a rental company as close as possible  to the place I was staying, which was in the Manhattan Beach area.

      I found online an Enterprise office a few miles away in the suburb of Lawndale,

...and so from this office I ordered  a car, which I arranged to pick up at noon the following day.
        When I arrived at noon at the Enterprise office, which was smallish but nonetheless spiffily decked out for Halloween,         

...there were two customers ahead of me not counting this guy in the corner,

​...whose demeanor was considerably calmer than those of his human counterparts.
     One of the customers was at the desk where they appeared to be giving the desk clerk an earful. The other customer sat waiting, perched forward in their chair impatiently tapping a foot and looking likewise ready to pounce on the desk clerk at the first opportunity. Me, I took a seat next to Mr. Skellington, as I would name him after we'd spent more time together.

    When my turn rolled around the desk clerk informed me that my car would be arriving on the lot soon and asked me to take a seat for a few moments, which I did.         After a while another clerk arrived on the scene, pow wowed briefly with my clerk, then informed me that actually my car was waiting at the Enterprise lot in Inglewood, but not to worry, a shuttle would soon be arriving to take me to Inglewood, where I could pick up my car.
        "Um, where's Inglewood?" I said.
        "Oh, not far," replied my clerk. 
        "Yeah, not far," repeated the other clerk. "Just about twenty or so minutes away. Out past the airport."
        Now, I could just see me trying to negotiate the L.A. highways and byways and finding my way back from someplace out past the airport. I asked the clerks if somebody couldn't please bring the car here to me. To my great relief, they said okay. And I went back to my seat to wait.
          After about an hour of waiting one of the clerks thanked my for my patience. But, though I smiled at the beleaguered clerk, the truth is that I wasn't really feeling patient. The truth is, I was feeling as if I were about to jump out of my skin. I needed to get home and get back to my baking, having apportioned so much time each day to each task. I feared I was now falling behind. But though I was a hot mess of anxiety and impatience just beneath my skin, I kept it all zipped up and sat quietly next to Mr. Skellington while I roamed around on my phone. 
           A few minutes before 2 pm the clerk brought me the good news that my car had arrived and again thanked me, this time profusely, for my patience, to which I pulled up the effort to reply that it wasn't their fault and after all, it wasn't like they were trying to make people wait. 
           "Oh," the clerk sighed, "that's not what other people were saying to us today." 
           I know, I answered to myself.
            The clerk then handed me the paperwork to sign. I prepared for the usual car rental sales pitch that would push me to buy supplementary insurance and the most costly gasoline option. To my surprise the clerk said, "You don't need insurance, right?"
           "Right," I replied in wonderment.
           "And just fill up the tank before you return it."
​           "Sure," I said in relief.
         "And, you know what?" said the clerk. "You've been so patient, I'm going to take one day of rental off your bill."
             "Wow," I said in disbelief.
​             "I mean," said the clerk, "You've been really patient."
             "Aw," I said, "it was nothing."      

Happy Halloween!