Once Upon a Time (Part 6)

It had been three weeks since the scribe last spoke to a supervisor from the Link of Sudden, which was, as noted, the first time anyone from the Link of Sudden had actually called him back. That guy had promised that "Leon" would be in touch with him by phone, seemingly within hours. However, over 504 hours had since passed and no call had been received from "Leon."

Meanwhile, the scribe's phone stopped working. Not his cell phone, but his house phone. He wasn't certain how long the phone had been inoperable, for they had received only two calls on it since it had been installed in March. At first the scribe thought that the phone had quit working because he had not yet paid his first bill. This was because his first bill had got lost in the piles of paper that had already begun to collect in the new castle and upon opening the second bill he discovered he somehow owed the phone company $111 for scarcely two months worth of service. How could that even be possible? He'd barely made ANY phone calls. Upon phoning the phone company and inquiring about it, he discovered that they were overcharging him for services they were supposed to provide for free. However, his adjusted bill total would not appear online until his next billing period, so the amount he needed to pay online was in determinant. So he just didn't pay it.

After the phone stopped working, the scribe went onto the web of the whole wide world and paid his bill. Days passed and the phone continued to provide only static. So he called the phone company back and let them know. They said they'd send someone out, and a couple of days later the scribe spied one of their service people digging in the local junction box for the neighborhood. The phone did not begin to work. And, after a long four day weekend away in Kentucky, the phone was still inoperable upon their return.

On Friday morning, the scribe phoned them up to alert them to this. They did not seem to want to believe him, because their records showed that the service guy had repaired the problem and received a dial tone at the junction box.

"I know," the scribe said. "I saw him down there. The phone still doesn't work."

The phone company agreed to send someone else round, though they were dubious if this would happen before Monday.

Having just faced one large bureaucratic organization that morning, the scribe phoned up the Link of Sudden. A cheerful phone rep named Amber took the call and, after hearing the SHORT SHORT version of his Link of Sudden Tale of Woe, was able to look him up and check the notes in the account.

"And then the Supervisor from BORDERLAND said that a `Leon' would be calling me within a few hours. That," the scribe said, "was three weeks ago. No one has called. And, I might add, until the supervisor from BORDERLAND called me, not one person from THE LINK OF SUDDEN has ever called me over the course of the past, ohhh, twelve weeks."

Amber said she was very sorry that this was the case. However, she could see in the account notes that Leon himself had actually made a note in the account back in April. Leon's note explained that that hooking up the scribe's castle for internet service would cost $12,000. The scribe should have been horrified at that figure, but nothing about the Link of Sudden could surprise him at this point, except, perhaps, for an actual phone call.

"This is the first I've heard anything about $12,000," the scribe said. "And that's precisely the sort of information we've been trying to get out of THE LINK OF SUDDEN for weeks."

Amber explained that she was uncertain if the $12,000 cost was their cost, the scribe's cost or something to be split up should it come to actually acting on the proposed job. The scribe again told her about his own proposed project of just getting the Link of Sudden to EFFing upgrade the plug-in box in his neighbor's yard, 70 feet down the hill, and his offer to have the trench dug to bury a cable from their, but, again, this was something he needed to discuss with Leon, who apparently was afraid to phone him. Amber made several notes in the account and said she would send communication to Leon that he was to communicate back with the scribe as soon as possible regarding the actual cost breakdown. Amber said she was on the scribe's side. She said she had his back in all this. She would follow up to make sure it happened.

And so far.... no call.