As many times before that, nothing predicted the turmoil that was about to erupt. I was on the laptop, Taka - in his office/our bedroom, Sonny - going in and out of the living room doing some stuff for his dad. I began to sense something very strange, all of a sudden. It felt like something between an acid re-flux and a heart attack.
But it was more of just a bad feeling, like things were not going well. I tried to process it, thinking of what it could be. May be I only wanted to look and read again my story published in a magazine (here, I plugged it in!), but I let Doris keep that magazine for a day or two. Sonny and I joked that I was feeling separated from the fruits of my labor and, therefore, was unsettled. Then the storm hit.
Taka almost ran into the living room. At least his aspect was like that of an irate rhinoceros charging.
- "What is this? Did you buy something on Amazon.com?" - He sounded very abrasive.- "I bought the telephone for the house and a purse for myself."
- "Well, does the total match this charge?!" I looked. It didn't.
- "You have to cancel the credit card now! Yesterday we had another unexplained charge too!"
I began to look for a phone receiver and my credit card to do what he demanded, all the while feeling like I was being torn to pieces by the pressure inside of me and Taka's aggressive attitude. - "Where are you going?! Five extra minutes might mean more charges on our credit card! Don't you know it?!!"
- "I am trying to do what you told me!" I was already shouting. I couldn't control rising panic.
As I looked for the tiny telephone number on the back of the card and tried to focus on what the automated voice told me on line, Taka's voice kept intruding on my concentration:
- "Why did you have to use the credit card? Why didn't you tell me that you bought something?!"
I had to start calling and hang up twice, because there was no way to listen to him and focus on the phone proceedings.
- "If you keep interrupting, I am not going to call! You can do it yourself!"
- "Oh, you want someone to rob us by charging their purchases on our credit?!" Prepare to sell the house then!!!"
- "Do what you want, just leave me alone!"
Taka ran back to the office, only to appear again by my side:
- "Did you call or not?"
- "Calling!"
If he just gave me time to figure all this out, we would've avoided a lot of the unnecessary anxiety. As it was, I could not hear myself think. I, finally, got a hold of an agent and cancelled the credit card. Then I looked for my purchase order confirmation among the old e-mails. In t-i-i-i-n-y letters on it I found a notation that Amazon.com charged our card for a portion of the whole purchase. It was exactly the amount that I didn't recognize on a printout.
Now, a week before Christmas, I don't have a credit card (we have to wait for a new one to come) and no way to buy presents or prepare for the holidays. All because of the rhino in our bedroom!
The end of the hostilities was quite unexpected. Taka turned up in living room again with a big ingratiating smile on his face, making jokes. It immediately made me feel better, and I, myself, began to joke with him and try to, as they say, "soothe the savage beast". Things are improving, aren't they!
No comments:
Post a Comment