Chapter 10: First Sell

They consisted of Pam, who hadn't said more then ten words to her all week. She smoked in excess and Hayden was happy that there was a policy that all smoking had to be done in the canteen, which meant that Pam had to leave the area every half an hour to feed her nicotine addiction. Next on her team was the rude guy with the neat desk.

From what Hayden could make out, his name was Brian, although Pam was the only one who had called him by his name. Pam had actually said "Brine" like he was something she soaked a turkey in. This was Covington, Kentucky though, so the room was filled with varying forms of countrified and Mid-Western dialects.

Then there was Marcus, an older Black man that smoked weed in his car during his breaks and lunch. He would always give himself away by returning with red eyes and singing doo-wop songs, or blasting jokes that made no sense. Last was Abdullah, who was of some unidentifiable race and who had an unidentifiable accent. He complained all the time and smelled funny.

Well, she was sure that they had some equally unappealing thoughts about her; the new hire… you know the pig-faced Black lady with freckles. Or maybe they laughed at her fruitless attempts to make a sale, stumbling over her words and getting hung up on while she was in the middle of a sentence. It didn't matter what anyone else thought though. She had decided that she would keep to herself during her four-hour shift and had made no attempts to be friendly with anyone here. This was a throwaway year and nothing that happened during it would mean anything except getting right with herself.

She placed her purse into her desk drawer before noticing that all of the sales had been removed from the mock up cover on her team's clipboard. She glanced at the open phonebook on Pam's desk. As usual Pam was off in the canteen smoking and drinking coffee. They had apparently finished Detroit and were now working Kansas City. Someone had placed a new phonebook on her uncluttered desk and she smiled. Yes, a fresh start with a new book!

Hayden stiffened her resolve as she sat down and studied her copy of the yellow pages sheathed in the previous years vinyl cover. She was going to make a sale if it killed her because there was no way that she would allow Pam to out sale her with her hacker's cough that marked the end of nearly every one of her sentences. Besides, no one was following the stupid script that she had been given, so why should she?

Hayden looked at the ads that had previously sold coming up with a great idea. She would start calling them. They had already purchased, right? Chances were they would be interested again, and at the very least they would be an easy sale.

There was a 5x9 ad that took up a huge amount of space on the back cover. She would get 30% commission from each sale… that would net her $156 for selling just that one ad. Hayden picked up her telephone, checking the time difference and decided that it wasn't too late to call these businesses.

"Hello, this is Hayden Michaels of Fox Vinyl and Map Ads. May I speak to the person in charge of your advertisements?"

The man who answered indicated he was in charge of marketing and advertisement. Hayden explained that his automotive company had advertised on the city's vinyl phonebook cover the year before and she was interested in whether he would like to advertise again.

"Is this with the Chamber of Commerce?"

"Uh… no," she responded.

"Well, we're working with the Chamber this year-"

"Oh well you know Fox Vinyl has exclusive access to vinyl covers in your area. Anyone who scans the phonebook looking for automotive repairs will see your glossy ad right there before they even open the book."

"Well…"

"Also, you have one of the better spots on the cover which we did save for your company. We just began our new campaign and I would hate to see it go to one of your competitors." Hayden held her breath and crossed her fingers… and toes. Please, please, please…

"Hmmm… Well, how much is it?"

"It's five-hundred and twenty dollars, which will get you a full year of advertisement, your name and logo in color with space for your phone and fax numbers, as well as your hours of operation and a line or two that you can use to indicate any other message."

"Five hundred and twenty bucks. Hmmm…"

"Yes sir. And because you advertised with us last year I can… throw in a hundred and fifty ink pens with your name and logo." Nervous beads of sweat popped up on her head.

"Well, people are always walking away with our pens… Alright Miss Michaels, you have yourself a deal."

Hayden had to resist jumping up on her desktop and doing the cabbage patch dance or the Icky Shuffle. She wasn't going to act like a novice by sounding all happy about it over the phone so she calmed herself and finished taking his information.

"I'll send the information right over to the printers and we will email you the proof. Thank you Mr. Lange."

After hanging up the phone Hayden leaned back in her chair and smiled. She jumped up and walked to the board where she placed her initials H.M. in the 5X9 area.

One hundred and fifty six bucks was hers. Now to sell another-

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Abdullah jumped to his feet and rushed to the board. He stared at it and then at Hayden with eyes ready to explode from his face.

"You stole my ad!" He yelled.

She gave him a surprised look. "What? I did not…" Her face burned in embarrassment when everyone's eyes moved to them. What was this crazy man talking about? She gestured to the board. "There is nothing written on the board-"