In the beginning I watched this honest friend of mine telling lies to these people, I felt my face grow hot. I don't know if I really blushed because I couldn't see my face.

     "When you sell flowers, you tell people that your flowers smell nice. When you sell melons, you tell people that your melons taste sweet. That's what you have to do to sell things. No matter what, wheter you are successful or not in the end, you have to start out by talking like this." When Tanaka came out of someone's house he would always explain it to me like that and I would always agree with him.

     There were some people who really didn't want to listen to our nonsense. As soon as they saw that we trying to sell subscriptiuons, a ferocious look would come over their faces, as though they were about to chase dogs away. They would shout at us to go away before they slammed their doors shut tightly. Then we wouldn'' know what to do. For now I was just an observer. I had to accept whatever I saw - - I was like a dog being chased away from these people's homes, but I still found the whole thing rather interesting. How could I know that I would soon be sent out to do this sort of work alone?

     "Have you learned the apper route yet?" After we got back from selling subscriptions, the boss called me over and started asking questions.

     "Yes, I've learned the route," I answered hime, feeling quite content with myself. I was happy because we'd covered a large, complicated, unfamiliar area in the past two days, and we'd sold two hundred and fifty subscriptions. I thought I could rememebr the two hundred fifty susbcriptions clearly too, and I was feeling a bit self-satisfied.

     "Not bad," he praised me, picking up some of the filled susbcription forms. He put his hand on my shoulder, and chuckled to himself as he said, "It's quite rare to get such good results your very first time out." I blushed, thinking that Tanaka had sold all the subscriptions - - I'd only walked by his side observing.

     "Well then, from today on, you'll sell subscriptions. Tanaka will deliver the papers. But - - when Tanaka has other things to do, you'll deliver papers for him. Don't forget."

     "All right." There was nothing I could do but agree. After today, even though I'd be working alone, would I still have time to spend with tanak?

  Prev   |31|32|33|34|35|36|37|38|39|40|41|   Next