Mr. Nice Guy

I was lying at home taking in a little television, just relaxing after a hectic deadline day.
The phone rings.
“Hello, can I speak with Aaron Lutz?”
As soon as the guy on the other end said Aaron, I knew it wasn’t going to be a pleasant call. Normally I’d pretend he wasn’t in and avoid the call, but I was a little curious.
“This is Aaron,” I replied.
“This is on behalf of your CIBC Visa card. You’re $108 over you’re limit and haven’t brought your payments up to date in a while.”
I thought about it for a bit. He was right. It’s been about three months.
“I made a payment of $50 last week,” I said. I knew it wasn’t enough but I was hoping to get a good effort we’ll leave him alone for a little longer.
“Is there a reason you haven’t been making the minimum payments?” He inquires.
“I don’t have the money,” was my simple response.
“Do you have a job?”
“Yes”
“What do you do?”
“I’m the sports editor in North Battleford.”
“Really, I’m from Prince Albert. When I was a kid, there was a huge baseball tournament there.”
“Really?”
“Yeah there were teams from all over the province and we took home the gold.”
“Wow, that’s nice.” I could really care less.
“So do you like the job?”
Yeah, it’s a blast I just wish it paid more.”
“It doesn’t pay very well?”
“No, if it did I wouldn’t have creditors calling me.” If it would have been a face to face conversation, I would have given him a nice glare and with a couple of beers might have asked him to step outside. Anyone that stupid should be beat up.
My response didn’t phase him. “So do you think you’ll wind up in Saskatoon or Calgary? At a big city paper? Is that what you want to do?”
“I’d like something like that, but might try and find a job that pays more.”
“We’ll put you on three pay-period payment plan. How does that sound?
“Whatever.”
Blah, blah some stupid numbers and dates, blah blah.
Why can’t I just get a mean guy that says. “You’re late on your payments. Here’s what we’re going to do or I’m going to come break your legs.”
I might actually carry through with the payments if there was some physical harm coming my way. Right now it’s just a 10-minute inconvenience.
Well I might be a little more inclined so I won’t have to hear about anymore childhood sports stories.
I was surprised the guy didn’t want to get together for a beer after the call.