I was in my mid-30s when I first met Alfred. He was probably 20 years older than me. I never asked exactly how old he was. That would have seemed disrespectful because I was the teacher that day.
I had spoken to him on the phone dozens of times, but this was the first time he was sitting in the chair on the side of my desk. There were three other customer-service guys in our office and they all were on the phone, shooting me annoyed looks because of what I was doing. Alfred had stopped by because he couldn’t grasp what I had been trying to tell him over the phone.