Marie Writes

Still building. Still dreaming. Success is just a matter of time ✍️📚

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

Last Wednesday, my car dealership charged me $289 for a service I’d already said no to.

I’d taken the car in for an oil change. The service advisor came out to the waiting area with a clipboard and a list of things it “could use.”

One was a fuel system cleaning. $289.

He said it was recommended at my mileage.

I said no, just the oil change. He drew a line through that row and asked me to initial beside it.

While he was talking to someone else, I took a photo of the sheet. I do that with anything I sign.

Two hours later, he handed me the invoice.

$347.

I asked what the rest was for.

“Fuel system cleaning. It’s already done.”

I said I’d declined it.

He said the technician must have seen it on the original list.

I asked him to take it off.

He leaned on the counter and smiled, like we were both being reasonable.

“I can’t un-clean your engine. You’ve already got the benefit.”

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

He stopped scanning.

“Eleven what?”

She said it was nothing. She said it was just the bag count.

He came around the podium, lifted my backpack out of the sizer, and set it back in without touching the top.

It dropped to the bottom with room on both sides.

Then he turned to her.

“Why are you counting them?”

She looked at the line, then at him.

“Rachel’s at nine.”

He didn’t say anything to that.

He voided the $99 on the card reader, handed my backpack back to me, and asked her to take over the boarding passes.

She did it without speaking.

On the plane, the man in the window seat next to me had a yellow $99 receipt sticking out of his pocket.

His backpack was under the seat in front of him.

It was smaller than mine.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

Last Friday, a gate agent told me my backpack would cost $99 to bring on the plane.

I had flown home from college with the same backpack on the same airline three times that year.

It goes under the seat. It always has.

She pointed at the metal sizer next to the podium. I put the backpack in, and it slid all the way to the bottom.

She pressed down on the top with her palm.

“It’s touching the sides. That makes it a carry-on.”

I said it fit.

She was already holding up the card reader.

“It’s $99 at the gate, sir, or you can watch the plane leave from here.”

There were about forty people behind me. I paid.

The other agent at the podium was scanning boarding passes and hadn’t looked up once.

As my card went through, the first agent leaned toward him.

“That’s eleven.”

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

The scanner beeped on the first pass.

The screen showed my name, my address, and the shelter’s adoption date.

The receptionist turned it toward her.

“Ma’am, when did he go missing from your yard?”

She said he hadn’t exactly gone missing.

She had dropped him off at the shelter when she moved apartments. They had told her he would go to a good family.

“I didn’t think they’d actually give him to someone.”

The receptionist handed the leash back to me.

She unbuckled the collar, put it back in her purse, and sat down without saying anything else.

Moose lay down at my feet.

A few minutes later, the vet called them in.

The older woman stood up with the cat carrier and stopped beside us.

She scratched Moose behind his ears.

“He was the one before the rabbit.”

Then she looked down at the carrier.

“This one’s been with us four months.”

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

Last Thursday, a woman in my vet’s waiting room told the receptionist I had stolen her dog.

Moose is a gray mutt I adopted from the county shelter two years ago.

She was sitting by the window with an older woman holding a cat carrier.

When we walked in, Moose pulled the leash out of my hand and ran straight to her.

She knelt down and called him Duke. He licked her face.

Then she took a red collar out of her purse and buckled it around his neck.

The tag said DUKE.

I said Moose was microchipped and registered to me.

She smiled at the receptionist.

“Then scan him. He was taken out of my yard.”

The receptionist looked at me.

I picked up the leash and handed it to him.

The older woman with the cat carrier didn’t look up.

She just said, “Not again.”

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

Two lines below the crayons was another charge.

Service Fee 20%: $7.49.

I put my finger beside it and asked the server what it was.

She said it was for the restaurant, not for her.

I asked for the manager.

He read the receipt, then turned to her.

“The service fee goes to the servers. Why did you ask him for a tip?”

She said most people don’t read that far.

Then she picked up her tray and walked back to the kitchen.

The manager took the crayons off our bill. He said they were supposed to be free, and he didn’t know who had added them to the register.

My daughter put her $5 back in her pocket.

He let her keep the crayons.

As we were leaving, the woman from the next booth waved him over.

She was holding up her own receipt.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

Last Saturday, I took my daughter out for pancakes because she had finally lost her front tooth.

The tooth fairy had left her a $5 bill. She brought it in her jacket pocket to show everyone.

When we sat down, our server put a cup of crayons beside her plate.

She colored the kids’ menu the whole time, then put every crayon back in the cup.

The check came to $47.94.

I paid on the card reader. It offered 18%, 20%, and 25%.

I pressed “No tip.”

The server looked at the screen, then at my daughter.

“Maybe the tooth fairy can tip me, since your dad won’t.”

The woman in the next booth turned around.

My daughter was already pulling the $5 out of her pocket.

Then she stopped. She was reading the receipt with one finger under each line, the way she reads her library books.

“Daddy, why did we pay for crayons?”

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

@CharlieW0486 I went in for an oil change. I almost came out with a cleaning I never got.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

Last Wednesday, my car dealership charged me $289 for a service I’d already said no to.

I’d taken the car in for an oil change. The service advisor came out to the waiting area with a clipboard and a list of things it “could use.”

One was a fuel system cleaning. $289.

He said it was recommended at my mileage.

I said no, just the oil change. He drew a line through that row and asked me to initial beside it.

While he was talking to someone else, I took a photo of the sheet. I do that with anything I sign.

Two hours later, he handed me the invoice.

$347.

I asked what the rest was for.

“Fuel system cleaning. It’s already done.”

I said I’d declined it.

He said the technician must have seen it on the original list.

I asked him to take it off.

He leaned on the counter and smiled, like we were both being reasonable.

“I can’t un-clean your engine. You’ve already got the benefit.”

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

@DaveOTGphotog Two years with the light on for free sounds better than $2,300 for a “might.”

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

@Livermore_BTC They changed their mind before I left. Then they put a coupon for the same cleaning on my seat.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

@Lionista00 After last Wednesday, I’m starting to see your point.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

@Burntkorn EV dealers have clipboards too.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

@MedigapSeminars Mine was cheaper than that. They never actually did it.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

@CraigSwann1 Smart. The only tool I’m good with is my phone camera.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

@BigMoe126 They changed their mind before I left. Then they put a coupon for the same cleaning on my seat.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

@wra219 He sent half the money and a link to a wall mount. I think he’s planning to come back.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

Last Sunday, my brother told me his son didn’t owe me anything for my $600 TV.

We’d had the family over to watch the game. My mother, my sister and her husband, and my brother with his two boys.

His older son is eleven. He’d brought a football and spent the first half tossing it to himself on the couch.

I asked him twice to take it outside.

My brother waved me off.

“He’s not going to throw it at anything.”

At halftime, I went to the kitchen for more chips.

I heard the thud from there.

The TV was face down on the carpet. A crack ran across the screen from one corner to the other.

My nephew was standing by the couch with his hands behind his back.

“It just fell,” my brother said.

He said it had been wobbly all afternoon. I said I hadn’t noticed it wobbling.

He said I’d put a big TV on a narrow stand, in a room full of kids.

Then he picked up his jacket.

“Honestly, that stand was a lawsuit waiting to happen.”

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

@Ratio_Disputati @HedleyLamarr10 Mine skipped the dirty part. He just put it on the invoice.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

I opened our neighborhood group on my phone.

On October 2, someone had posted a photo of the skeleton with his coffee mug.

The first comment was hers.

“Best house on the street. My son wants one.”

The officer read it, then turned the screen toward her.

“Is this you, ma’am?”

She said that was before she knew it would be up all month.

He asked whether anyone had been hurt or threatened.

Nobody had.

He handed my phone back, wished us a good evening, and walked to his car.

My neighbor stayed at the end of my driveway.

That was when her son came out of their garage dragging a long cardboard box.

There was a skeleton on the front.

He held it up so I could see.

“Mom said we can put ours up when yours comes down.”

She took the box from him and walked him back inside.

Two days later, a skeleton appeared on her porch.

It was holding a coffee mug.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

Last Sunday, a police officer came to my door because my neighbor had reported a body hanging from my tree.

It was a plastic skeleton.

He’s hung in our oak tree every October for six years. He wears my husband’s old bathrobe and holds a coffee mug.

Kids wave at him on their way to school.

The woman across the street moved in this summer. Last week, she asked me to take him down because he was scaring her son.

I offered to turn him around so he faced away from her windows.

I did it that evening.

On Sunday, the officer stood on my porch, looking up at the bathrobe.

He asked whether I knew why he was there.

Before I could answer, my neighbor walked across the street.

She didn’t look at the tree. She looked at him.

“She put it up the day after I told her my son was terrified.”

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

@TrnQuangSn15 His radio seemed to think so.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

Last Tuesday, a tow truck driver told me it would cost $385 to take my car off his hook.

I’d stopped at a pharmacy on the way home from work to pick up my allergy prescription.

The card reader at the register was down. Cash only.

I had $6.

The bank was directly across the street, so I left my car where it was and walked over to the ATM.

I was gone eight minutes.

When I came back, my front wheels were off the ground.

The sign by the entrance said “Customer Parking Only.” I told the driver I was a customer.

He pointed at the sign anyway.

“$385 drop fee. Cash or card. Once it leaves the lot, it’s $640.”

I asked him to wait while I paid for my prescription.

The pharmacy manager followed me back outside with my receipt.

The driver smiled at her.

“Don’t worry, ma’am. This one never set foot in your store.”

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

@Florida30529149 I thought about it. I just left it by her door and didn't knock.

[Marie Writes @Hayato_ett]

Last Tuesday, a police officer knocked on my door because my neighbor said I’d stolen a package off her porch.

Our houses look almost the same. Drivers mix them up all the time.

When I got home from work, there was a box on her porch with my name on it. I picked it up and carried it home.

Ten minutes later, the officer was at my door.

My neighbor was standing on the sidewalk behind him with her arms folded.

He said she’d reported an air fryer missing from her porch.

I said I’d ordered an air fryer on Sunday.

She stepped forward.

“That’s convenient.”

The officer asked if he could see the box.

I let him into the kitchen. It was on the counter, still taped.

She followed us as far as the doorway.

“That’s the exact one. Same size, same everything.”

I said that was because it was the one I’d ordered.

She turned to the officer and pointed at me.

“I watched him walk off my porch with it. Ask him what he was doing there.”