The Copy Shop in Babel

Two months ago I took my Learning Thai book to the copy shop down the road to get a copy made for Josephine, my coworker. I went back in a couple of days to pick it up, but it wasn't ready yet. Actually, when I showed up the lady who works there started looking around like maybe she'd misplaced the book. After a couple of minutes she told me to come back later. But when I came back a few days later, she still didn't have it. At that point she took my phone number. I wondered later if I would even know when she called me. The women who work at this shop speak even less English than I speak Thai, which is very little.

A couple of days later I got a call from someone who could only speak Thai (a somewhat regular occurrence) and I optimistically thought it was the call from the copy shop. But when I showed up to see if they had my book ready it was obvious they weren't waiting for me. The woman was trying to explain something to me but I had no idea what. Finally she said to me something like "don't come back" which was shocking to hear, even though it wasn't said in anger. I had to assume that they had lost my book and the copy they'd made. But I really wanted to know what was going on! I also started to wonder if I should ask them to make it up to me in some way. I hate to be pushy or throw blame around, but they lost my Thai book! I'd found another copy of the book at the intern house and I was thinking I should ask them to make a copy for free to replace the one they'd lost. But how was I supposed to do that?

After a couple days I decided to ask my friend who has lived here for a few years for advice. She said that if I wanted we could go by with her Thai friend and she could ask the lady what was going on. When we got to the place and our Thai friend asked, the woman at the shop launched into an animated retelling of the "how the book got lost" story. When the story was done, our Thai friend said thanks and walked away without any of my suggestions of new copies being made. We got back into my friend's car and she asked us what had happened. I told her that my book was sitting out and suddenly a man on a motorbike drove by, swiped the book and drove off before anyone could do anything. At least that was my interpretation of the rushed Thai and hand movements.

Our Thai friend told us the real story. My book and the copy had been sitting on the counter when another customer came to collect a large job. He must have taken my books along with his. The woman assured us that he was a pretty regular customer and they would ask him to bring it back the next time they saw him. I waited and wondered how someone could pick up an unfamiliar Thai language book and never think to return it to where it obviously came from. He couldn't have been that regular of a customer because two months went by. Until....

This morning I got a call from a number I didn't have in my contacts. I don't like answering these calls because they're mostly wrong numbers (see second paragraph). But I did answer. The call went something like this:

"Hello?"
"Hello, ฎนากุถเขยรวล"
"...sorry?"
"Nakunruin copy shop"
"Oh, yes!"
"Okay, today?"
"Okay, yes."
"Okay."

It had been about a month since I'd completely given up on my Thai book, yet I knew right away what the call meant. I went in to the copy shop after work and there were hugs all around, confetti poppers and champagne (okay, just in my head) as they went under the counter and handed me my books. I was just so excited! Even though Josephine had long since decided to quit Thai lessons. And they didn't even give me a discount on the job.

Hurray!