Barry Boisterous gets up at 7 AM every day. He makes a racket turning off his alarm. He uses his LoudCoffeeMachine Inc. coffee grinder. He yells, “Coffee is the highlight of my day!” Barry takes his loud car to the loud freeway to play his loud music and honk his loud horn. He arrives at Bank Inc., where he is a Client Service Representative. He enjoys talking loudly on phone calls from 9 to 5. He goes home, turns up his TV to the maximum volume, and cooks dinner, banging pots and pans, screaming loudly in pain if he burns himself, or loudly slamming his knife onto his cutting board while slicing. He then goes to sleep to start a new day.
One day, the highway is closed.
“Come on!” Barry yells. “Now I have to drive through the suburbs!”
Barry drives on, seeing the sign he hates.
No loud noise before 9 AM
Please do not be loud
Barry turns off his music and begins the quiet journey through the suburbs. He realizes how loud his car is when he has to be quiet. He begins to enjoy the quiet as he passes through the deserted, peaceful, beautiful suburban houses. Finally, he arrives to work and checks the time. It’s only 8:30 AM!
“Barry!” Barry’s boss, Fred Figurehead exclaims. “You’re early! I have a job for you! I need you to make a presentation on why we should keep our Client Service branches open so that we can impress the people up top! Now, go on, to your cubicle!”
Barry goes and turns on his computer. The power goes out. Good thing Barry has a laptop! Now, Barry needs to find interesting words to use. He opens the dictionary app. He clicks “search,” but the app proclaims it needs WiFi. He heads to the library.
He arrives and heads to the librarian’s desk.
“Excuse me,” Barry bellows, “I’m looking for a dictionary!”
The librarian glares disapprovingly, “Libraries are supposed to be quiet places.”
Barry is left to find the dictionary alone. He walks down to the bottom floor. It is dark, so Barry has to be careful not to trip. Barry likes the quiet.
“Wait a minute,” Barry says, “I think I enjoy quiet! But I also enjoy loud…”
Barry sits down. “I think I prefer not being loud all the time! I can hear my own thoughts and enjoy the peace. Maybe I should try again to get help…”
Barry heads back upstairs. The librarian gives him a worried stare.
“Excuse me…” he asks, trying to whisper. “I need a dictionary… could I have assistance?”
The librarian smiles sweetly and says, “Why, yes, I will help. Thank you for being quiet.”
After help from the now happy librarian, Barry heads back to finish his presentation. After sending it to Fred Figurehead once the power is back, he gets a call.
“Barry!” Fred bellows, “we need you to present this presentation! Get up to the McMeffelman Conference Room ASAP!”
Barry walks in and sets up as many eyes peer at him.
“Hello…” Barry says nervously. Many people at the big black oval table make a confused face.
“This is my presentation on Client Service.”
Many people murmur. Barry realizes how quiet it is in the big room.
“Client Service is important because it makes our clients feel welcome,” Barry says boisterously. “Did you know, in the past ten years, we’ve increased clients who choose us by 340 percent? We can’t keep this reputation if we cut funding. We need state of the art computers to run numbers and state of the art phones so we can understand our clients and they can understand us.”
Barry bows. People start clapping.
Back at his desk, he gets an unexpected call…
“Barry!” Fred bellows, “you’re promoted! You impressed the COs and they’re increasing support for this branch!”
Barry boisterously yells in joy. Everyone looks at him.
“Sorry!” he whispers.
Now, Barry Boisterous wakes up every day to his quieter alarm. He uses his promotion money to get a coffee at ScamBucks and drives his quieter electric car through the suburbs to get to work early, so he can be loud there.
The End