Saturday, November 25, 2006

They will take care of it won't they? I mean to say, it IS white.

Ding-ding went the annoying over-the-door chime as I opened the door and slid in.
"Hello", said I.
"Hello yes", said little Chinese woman.
"Do you dryclean?", ask I.
"Enh?" spits little Chinese woman.
"Do you dryclean?", I persist in my pursuit of knowledge.
"Yes, we dryclean shop", affirms little Chinese woman.
"Fair enough, I'm convinced. I need this white jacket drycleaned", I say, courageouly pushing the lovely white winter coat across the counter, heart on sleeve.
"Yes, ok, we dryclean for you", the little Chinese woman grabs the article in question greedily.
"Splendid. You see these stains on the cuffs? Can you remove them?", I venture bravely.
"I not sure. Maybe. Sometime it no come out", says little Chinese woman, trodding painfully on my exposed heart.
"Alright, but can you make sure you pay extra attention to the cuffs?", I beg silently with my dark limpid eyes.
"Maybe. Maybe not." She's rather definite about her stance on the cuff issue.
"Oook. What about the inside? Can you clean the inside of the jacket as well?", say I, standing a clear foot and a half over her, making the distinction between me as customer and she as service provider distinctly felt.
"You want inside? Dry clean only outside", says her of little Chinese origins, very cautiously.
"Yes, I'm aware of that dry clean is only outside. But can you dryclean the inside as well?", persist I. I'm relentless today.
"We clean outside one time. Outside only. One time." You know, in case there was confusion on the issue.
"Yes, well, after you've cleaned it outside one time, you could, turn it inside out and clean it again. Couldn't you?", say I, ever logical.
"You want clean outside one time and then two time?", says she, not understanding the complicated techincality of my request.
"Yes, clean outside one time and then inside two time. Can you do that?" No need to lose my cool. Alls I have to do is speak her language. Soon she'll come around. Nobody can be that unfeeling.
"No no, we only clean one time", she says, unfeelingly.
"Alright, will the one time cleaning take care of the inside?" Perhaps I've been going about this all wrong.
"We dryclean only."
"Nevermind."
Ding-ding went the annoying over-the-door chime as I stormed out of the door.

1 comment:

Lippy said...

My head would have been spinning by that point. Good luck with that!