Raised in the tough foster care system of East Side Calhoun Heights, Maryland, Roderick Payne never had it easy and consistently chose the wrong path. After spending more than a year in a youth correctional facility for a drug charge, he gets one la...
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Roderick rinsed off the soap from a customer's car and then began drying it by hand with a large microfiber drying towel. When he finished drying the car, he unrolled the hose that was connected to a machine that contained various scented vapors inside of it. The customer had requested the new car scent, so Roderick turned the dial to new car and began letting out some of the scented vapor from the hose into the car. After a few seconds, he turned the machine off and rolled the hose back around its holster. He then climbed into the car and drove it back around to the front of the shop.
"Your car is ready, sir," he said to the customer as he entered the shop. "I can ring you up now." He went behind the service desk and brought up the customer's service worksheet on the computer, saying to the customer, "Okay, you had an oil change, a battery test, tire rotation, and our silver detail package. That will be $189.44, sir."
The customer pulled out his debit card and inserted it into the card chip reader next to the cash register. He put in his four-digit pin number and when the confirmation came up on the computer screen, Roderick tapped confirm and the man's receipt began to print. Roderick then printed the service worksheet out and stapled the receipt to it. He handed it and the customer's car keys to the customer.
"Have a nice day and thank you for choosing Ali & Payne Auto," Roderick said to him. "Have a nice day, sir."
"You, too, young man," said the customer before leaving.
Roderick quickly pulled out his phone from under the service desk to text Jacory but Deven walked in from the back and said, "Boy, you got a few more cars to work on. Get off that phone."
"Dang, Dev, I just spent the last half hour cleaning that old man's Buick inside and out. You always got me out in the sun smellin' like the onions in spaghetti workin' full-time on Saturdays. I can't take a minute to text my boo on the day of our senior prom?"
Deven rolled his eyes and said, "Make it quick, man. You don't see these customers up in here waiting on their cars? I'm already letting you leave an hour early so you can get ready for your prom. But you need to take care of those four customers."
"Two of them are here for alignments and I'm not a mechanic. They didn't request car detailing either."
"Then get to the other two. You got your paycheck for last week's work yesterday. Time to put in the work for next week's check."
Roderick sucked his teeth and said under his breath, "Better hope I don't really start workin' at Burger King this summer."
"Say what?"
"I said, boy I'm sure gonna miss workin' here with you after the summer."
Deven smiled and patted him hard on the back while saying, "Don't play with me, bro. Get to work."
