Over the last few days, Anne and I have been on a bit of a road trip. One of the colleges she is looking at had an exam and interview for some of its early admission applicants to qualify for a particular scholarship. We heard the words "academic scholarship" and hopped in the car to go for it. Come to find out that the money we spent to drive down and apply for the award may be about as much as the grant. Ah, well. It was nice to get away for a few days.
We drove a rental for the trip, of course. My car has quite a few miles on it and we wanted the certainty we would not break down on the road during this very long trip. Anne was in charge, since this is her excursion, and she scheduled the vehicle online with Hertz. We used a Hertz car for the long college adventure last summer, so we felt comfortable with them.
Bright and early on Friday morning, we picked up the car and got on the road. Traffic was pretty easy so, within about two miles, I reached down to turn on my cruise control... and could not find it.
"Oh, no. I am NOT driving hundreds of miles without cruise control. Call and see if we can switch cars." Coming up to an exit, I hope she hurries. She is silent, unmoving.
"Call right now," I order.
"I don't have their number."
"Check the paperwork."
Fumble fumble with the paperwork, looking for the number to call. Meanwhile, I am still driving on the highway. I pass another exit.
"District office," she reads. "I don't want to call the district office, do I? I just want the pickup office."
"District office is fine. Just call them."
She calls and talks to the gentleman, giving me NO idication as I am driving whether or not I should get off the highway and turn around or keep going to another Hertz location. Finally, she gets off the phone and tells me to flip around. We had to go back only one exit to the main district office. That was good. We got there in no time and walked into the office to change cars.
The gentleman was expecting us when we got there. He explained that the car we had rented online was a compact car, which is not guaranteed to come equipped with cruise control because most people rent compact cars for work trips when they just need to buzz around the city. He said that they happened to have a bunch of cars at the office that day and knew we were going on a long trip, so gave us a free upgrade.
As he spoke, the office girl behind him was quietly moving about and gathering paperwork. She was moving about so much that my attention turned to see what she was doing. It seemed obvious that she was working on our situation to get the cars switched out. That is when I noticed she looked a lot like the girl who had originally rented us our vehicle.
"I wonder if they are related," I thought at first. But as I looked a little closer, the resemblance was so uncanny that it occurred to me the two agents might be twins. I looked at Anne. With a crooked lip, I pointed to the girl. Silently, Anne nodded. We both focused directly on her.
Our mutual thought evident from our actions, the gentleman manager laughed, "No, we don't have any twins in the office. She is the same agent. We operate the other office out of this one. It is only open by appointment."
We drove a rental for the trip, of course. My car has quite a few miles on it and we wanted the certainty we would not break down on the road during this very long trip. Anne was in charge, since this is her excursion, and she scheduled the vehicle online with Hertz. We used a Hertz car for the long college adventure last summer, so we felt comfortable with them.
Bright and early on Friday morning, we picked up the car and got on the road. Traffic was pretty easy so, within about two miles, I reached down to turn on my cruise control... and could not find it.
"Oh, no. I am NOT driving hundreds of miles without cruise control. Call and see if we can switch cars." Coming up to an exit, I hope she hurries. She is silent, unmoving.
"Call right now," I order.
"I don't have their number."
"Check the paperwork."
Fumble fumble with the paperwork, looking for the number to call. Meanwhile, I am still driving on the highway. I pass another exit.
"District office," she reads. "I don't want to call the district office, do I? I just want the pickup office."
"District office is fine. Just call them."
She calls and talks to the gentleman, giving me NO idication as I am driving whether or not I should get off the highway and turn around or keep going to another Hertz location. Finally, she gets off the phone and tells me to flip around. We had to go back only one exit to the main district office. That was good. We got there in no time and walked into the office to change cars.
The gentleman was expecting us when we got there. He explained that the car we had rented online was a compact car, which is not guaranteed to come equipped with cruise control because most people rent compact cars for work trips when they just need to buzz around the city. He said that they happened to have a bunch of cars at the office that day and knew we were going on a long trip, so gave us a free upgrade.
As he spoke, the office girl behind him was quietly moving about and gathering paperwork. She was moving about so much that my attention turned to see what she was doing. It seemed obvious that she was working on our situation to get the cars switched out. That is when I noticed she looked a lot like the girl who had originally rented us our vehicle.
"I wonder if they are related," I thought at first. But as I looked a little closer, the resemblance was so uncanny that it occurred to me the two agents might be twins. I looked at Anne. With a crooked lip, I pointed to the girl. Silently, Anne nodded. We both focused directly on her.
Our mutual thought evident from our actions, the gentleman manager laughed, "No, we don't have any twins in the office. She is the same agent. We operate the other office out of this one. It is only open by appointment."
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