And now his ghost is a rising host above the blinding blur

I stayed up late on the phone with Amanda as she attempted to send me a picture on MySpace. It was getting well past my bed time, but I would have stayed up 'till dawn to await the picture. Around twelve thirty, she completed her masterpiece and sent it to me. It was well worth the wait; I got on MySpace and there waiting for me was a picture of the Solid Gold dancers, with Amanda's head superimposed over one of them. Funny stuff, particularly because it carried some significance, of which I won't divulge because it would incriminate the fuck out of me. Let's just say I had affection for the Solid Gold dancers when I was younger and leave it at that.

Today was one of the better ones I've had at Taylor Rental. It was slow, but the day didn't drag. Everyone went about their work in good spirits and my stress level was at Defcon 1. There was a little excitement at the end of the day, though.

For some reason, beginning at four thirty, I dealt with a string of customers who couldn't speak a lick of English. The first was a woman returning some napkins. There was a discrepancy on her order and I tried explaining it to her, but she could only react with a string of profanities in Spanish. I eventually gave up trying to explain it to her, so I pointed at the door, hoping she'd interpret the gesture correctly. She did, and she left with a smile.

The next arrival was a little Potrugese guy I had placed an order for a few days ago. He reminded me of Yohei, the meek villager in Seven Samurai and right up until he got upset with me, he maintained that image.

This man had rented from us a Moon Bounce, one of those inflatable houses kids jump up and down in, and he was attempting to return it. When he had placed the reservation, he had to put his friend on the phone with me, because his English was nonexistent. Today, his interpreter was nowhere in sight, so we had to wing it. From his hand gestures and certain words in Portugese I was able to decipher, I figured out that he didn't have the Moon Bounce with him because he didn't have the use of his friend's van to transport it. He tried telling me in his Yohei demeanor that he wanted us to go pick it up for him, that it was only a couple of streets away. I told him we would, but that it would cost him twenty dollars. He agreed and gave me his credit card.

It was declined. After spending the next five minutes trying to explain to him that without payment, we wouldn't be able to pick up the Moon Bounce. The problem was that if he returned it tomorrow, he would have to pay for another days rental. He started yelling at me and tried to tell me in his pulverized English that I had overcharged him to begin with and that even after the twenty dollars for the pick up, we'd still owe him a couple of hundred dollars. At that point, I went looking for Al, one of my drivers, so that he could speak explain to the guy in Spanish what was going on.

Al tried to talk sense in Yohei, but it didn't do any good; he continued ranting and raving. Finally, after taking all that I was inclined to take, I butted in and told Al to tell him that the guy was already a day late and that, by rights, I could charge him another two hundred dollars. I wouldn't do that, though, if the guy gave me the twenty dollars necessary for us to go pick up his rental. Without stopping for breath, I told Al to also tell Yohei that if the matter wasn't resolved quickly, I would send the man on his way, leaving him to figure out how he was going to return the Moon Bounce and with another days rental to pay for. This tactic seemed to work on the man, because he quickly forked over twenty bucks in cash. Al told me the guy was upset primarily because I never explained to him that he had to pay taxes on the rental. Explain to him? How in bloody hell did he expect me to do that when he couldn't speak more than three words in English.

Most people who come into the shop who aren't fluent in English are usually pretty articulate. Often, they're embarrassed to even try to speak the language, but when they eventually do, I'm almost always impressed at how much they know. But people like Yohei, and the other couple of people I dealt with at the end of the day don't even try. C'mon, people, meet me halfway.