아홉

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I'm standing behind the Hotbox with Anna and Mr. Min. He lost his key. We're holding our register tills, waiting for Taehyung to come back from the cash-out room and unlock the door. I'm not even sure if Taehyung's made it through the lobby yet, escorting the other ticketing agents we're supposed to be replacing. But I don't even know if Taehyung knows we're locked out. I do know that it's a few minutes past noon and the line is pretty long. Frank, the guy in charge of taking tickets at the turnstile, keeps looking around the corner at us, the look on his face progressing from antsy to dismayed.

Mr. Min sniffles and rubs his nose. "We'll give him another minute to make it to cash-out before I buzz him. No sense in making him panic. He's got to get the tills to the room first."

Anna and I look at each other, shrug, and both make he's got a point faces. What are we going to do? There's no one at the information desk right now. The lady who's supposed to be there, who also has a key to ticketing, is outside in the parking lot, talking with a tour party. Mr. Lopez is on an extended lunch break with the shift supervisor. Besides, Mr. Min doesn't like to bother him, and who am I to argue?

He leans back against the booth's door, a little breathless, and crosses one ankle over the other, revealing his stripes socks. I sort of love them. And I sort of love Min Yoongi, even though his eyes are slits and he reeks of cigarettes. Anna says she caught him smoking in his car before work yesterday. He's got to be in his seventies. Let the guy have a few bad habits, I say.

"Next month will be 40th anniversary working at the museum," he says in a soft voice. He's got a gentle way about him that makes you want to listen to what he has to say. I'm not sure why Taehyung gets so frustrated with him. He's just an old man. Have a heart.

Anna's lips pout. "That's crazy."

"You must like it if you've stuck it this long," I say.

"Eh, I like observing people. And I don't have any college or training, so what else am I supposed to do? This is all I know." He scratches his head and his crazy white hair sticks in different directions. "They tried to make me retire about ten years ago, but I didn't really have anything to do at home. I never married. I've got a dog, Holly, but she gets tired of seeing me all day. SO even though they didn't pay me, I just kept showing up to work."

"What?" Anna says, unable to hide her disbelief

Hoppla! Dieses Bild entspricht nicht unseren inhaltlichen Richtlinien. Um mit dem Veröffentlichen fortfahren zu können, entferne es bitte oder lade ein anderes Bild hoch.

"What?" Anna says, unable to hide her disbelief. "For how long?"

"Um, about three months or so. Mr. Lopez finally got sick of telling me to go home, so he officially rehired me and put me back on the schedule." He smiles, gummy-like, lifting his shoulders. "And here I stand. it hasn't killed me yet. I think Taehyung should be in the cash-out room by now. Cover your ears, ladies. He's not going to be happy."

Anna bumps shoulders with me while Yoongi radios Taehyung. "Glad we're finally schedule together again."

"Me too." I say, genuinely meaning it. "Team Suzna, taking care of business."

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