Through the Eyes of a Delivery Goddess |
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This particular home was on my Tribune Review route; many very early mornings as I rounded the culdesac, I'd see an adult male sitting in an office type room at a large conference table. Well, it was large for an "in-home" conference table, anyway ... probably seated twelve or fourteen folks. He was always in a button-down and a tie, so he had to have been some sort of executive or salesman. One evening, I got to deliver a pizza to this home. I could see a young fellow sitting at the table this time - he might have been as much as ten years old, but certainly not more. I knocked on the door, and I saw him get up from the table in the room that was off to the right of the front door. He came to the door dressed in very nice clothing, (especially for a ten year old), and politely asked, "How much did the bill come to?" I told him, and I watched him walk across the entry way to a table and count out the money, then look at what he had left. He looked up into the air for a brief moment, as if he was solving a problem. I would have guessed he was calculating the tip, but he was pretty young for that. He looked back at the money left over in his hand, and sorted out four one dollar bills. He added those to the original stack of money and returned to the door with his hand outstretched, "Here, Ma'am. The extra is your tip." I told him, "Thank you VERY much, young man! Would you like to get a towel to put under the pizza? It might be kind of greasy on the bottom and I dont' want you to ruin your clothes." "I can hold it out away from me just fine," he assured me, so I set the two liter of Pepsi down on the marble floor right inside the door, and handed him the pizza. His small arms barely reached both edges of the pizza, but he was able to keep the box completely away from his clothes. I reached for the door knob and said, "Is it OK if I just pull this shut?" Suprised, he said ,"Oh, yes... Thank you ma'am" and he turned toward the kitchen. I could hear other children playing upstairs while we were exchanging food for cash, and I couldn't help but wonder if he'd been left in charge of some other children in the house. I have no idea how many others there might have been, but something tells me, he was capable of running a pretty tight ship for them. Incidentally, four dollars was just a few pennies over fifteen percent, as far as my tip went. Pretty bright young shaver, his parents should be proud! |