“Well, I tell you what,” he said. “Let me at least drop off a gift for you. What harm can there be in that?”
“Why don’t you mail it?” I asked. “There’s no need to waste your time bringing it. I can assure you that I won’t be buying a set. My children have all the encyclopedias they will ever need.”
“Your address is … ,” and he rattled off my address. I assumed that he had gotten it from some mailing list. There was an annoying persistence about him as he continued. “It will only take a few minutes. Please, let me drop it off. Company policy, you see.”
“Well, what harm can there be? Only a few minutes you say?”
“Yes, I promise that I won’t impose on you. This evening around 7:00 p.m. Will that be fine?”
“Okay, I’ll see you then,” I said and hung up the phone. There was a vague familiarity in this conversation, a kind of d