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It is' imperative" imperative, that you purchase it." The

distractedmoth.er .nodded impatiently, clearly wanting to,

take her rarilbunctious children home for a nap. When she

h~ard her, sal-e t.ot.a l , the cus t.omer-'. s eyes shot open, and

,she glared 'at'Nilesh" but he pretended to be busy with a

compufer:, iind,she just snorted in disgust and handed over

her cred i t card" spending over two hundred dollars more than

she had anticipated. Bypassing other shoppers in the check-

out line, Nilesh brings his customers right to the front,

leaving'them no time to change their minds ,and enabling him

to move in quickly on other prey. He reJuses to actually

,learn how to run the cash registers, insisting that it is

,'not his job, and that the-cashiers run them too 'beautifully

for his clumsiness to emulate.

~wo summers ago, Staples employees thought that their

prayers had been answered, for the man who supposedly speaks

11 language's (he claims to have turned down employment by

the 'CIA) announced that he was packing up his .family and

moving to Nbrth Carolina to run a gas station/convenience

store. It was too good to be true. When I returned from

my' first year of' college, Nilesh was in charge of the

electronics department, with a paycheck comparable to the

managers on ·salary. Not that he had taken on ,any extra

responsibility; he still played computer games ,when business

was slow and paid no'attention to any numbers but his own

warrantee sales, a behavior which continues still today.

Cornered in the cash register cubby by Nilesh, I try to

think of his good qualities. "He drives a mini-van and

always picks his son up from school. He drives a mini-van

and always'picks his son up ftom school." My personal space

disastrously invaded, focus ~s hopeless. Moving his bushy

eyebrows up and down suggestively, Nilesh emits a tiger-like

growl. "If only I were younger, twenty years younger, we

could, have a rumble, no?"

,~ No, N1iesh; No. r.