Thursday, September 27, 2012

And then the meter man came ... again

Wednesday morning the meter man came.

I was in work and he had to call me to get the keys. We're very security-conscious: we even lock up our meters. He was an unusually cheerful meter man and as I hovered while he read the electric meter he exclaimed, from inside the understairs cupboard, 'Would you look at this?'
I assumed it was rhetorical but he stuck his head out and said, 'Have you seen this meter?'
I had, several times, but his voice suggested something amazing had happened to it. Maybe its position as a church meter had led to it taking on the shape of the Virgin Mary. Perhaps we would be the next place to have a simulacrum that would feature in tabloid newspapers and and dodgy internet sites.
I squeezed in behind him. 
I was disappointed: it looked exactly the same as ever.
'Do you know how to read this?' he said.
'Yes.'
He shook his head. 'They don't teach you this when you become a meter man. You have to work it out for yourself.'
I was pleased it made his day.

I was slightly less pleased later on when he came back.

He asked if he could use the toilet. 'There's nowhere round here and I saw your car was here.'
Which was fine except you can't see the car park from the road and I was alone in the building. 'Don't be stupid,' I said to myself as I let him in. He's a nice man. He's not going to hurt you.'
My inner voice argued, 'They're probably all nice men. To begin with ...'
I waited in the kitchen for him and I spotted the phone. I dithered for a moment then I called Husband. 'Hello,' he said.
'Talk to me for a bit,' I said.
'Why? Who are you trying to avoid?' (He knows me so well.)
'I'll explain in a minute.'

Meter man left and I locked the door behind him. Was I being paranoid? Or aware? 

I'm sure he was just a nice friendly man.

7 comments:

nick said...

You were being aware. Unfortunately women always have to be wary of strange men because they simply don't know whether they're going to behave decently or disgracefully. What women often do of course is pretend to be talking to someone on their mobile.

Furtheron said...

They don't teach him how to read a meter?... err...

Better to be safe than sorry as they say, don't worry about it you did the right thing

CherryPie said...

I think you should have said 'no' when he said do you know how to read this.

Even so it was a very strange thing for him to return like that. You did the right thing! As Furtheron said, it always better to be safe than sorry.

Ole Phat Stu said...

Forget the meter man.

Topical question : Did you ever elope with your maths teacher?

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

I think you were being aware, too.

Liz Hinds said...

If I'd known where my mobile was, nick ...

Very old-fashioned apparently, furtheron.

What was even stranger is that he was so cheerful, cherrypie!

She was a dowdy aged spinster, so no, stu.

It's sad we have to be, welshcakes.

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

Sensible !