I’ll Start Reading The Sign If You Start Reading My Face!

I work for a yard care service in my teens. We mow lawns, tend to bushes, and just do general yard work. I am sent out to a new client. When I get to the street, I find a row of houses without any visible house numbers, so I’m trying to figure out which of them is the actual address where I’m supposed to be working.

I go up and knock on the door of the house I think it is and a man answers. He barely glances at me and points toward a “No Trespassing” sign.

Man: “No soliciting!”

He then slams the door in my face. I’m a bit startled, but I move on to the next-door neighbors, who end up confirming that the original house was the one I was looking for.

Cell phones aren’t that common at this point, and I don’t have one, so I can’t just call back to ask my boss what to do. I decide to make another attempt. I have a push mower, which I haul up and place in front of the door before knocking. The same man answers and opens his mouth as if he is about to shout, and then he notices the lawnmower.

Me: “Hi! I’m with [Company]. I heard you wanted to have your lawn mowed?”

Man: “Oh. Uh, yeah.”

After that, I am able to get the details about what he wants done and things proceed smoothly.

Two weeks later, I’m back for the next service, and as I’m getting set up, I notice a set of keys laying on his driveway. I pick them up and head up to the door to turn them over. Once again, I knock and he answers, and once again, he barely glances at me and points toward the sign.

Man: “No soliciting!”

It is a practically identical repeat of our first interaction, complete with him slamming the door in my face. I’m standing there, kind of bemused and about to knock again, when the door suddenly cracks open.

Man: *Sheepish whisper* “You’re the grass cutter, aren’t you?”

Me: “Yep! I just saw these keys in your driveway and wanted to hand them over.”

His eyes got wide when he saw them and he quickly took them. From that point on, he never again slammed the door in my face when something would require me to knock on it.