Host: Meg Bowles
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Meg: [00:00:12] From PRX, this is The Moth Radio Hour. I'm Meg Bowles.
In this hour, we bring you three stories told live on stage in Omaha, Nebraska, Portland, Maine and New York City. The stories may be wildly different, but they all share a common theme of how everyday events can end up being extraordinary.
Our first story comes from Angela Dohrmann. She shared it as part of a Mainstage we produced in Nebraska at the Rose Theater, with support from Omaha Public Radio, KIOS. Here's Angela, live at The Moth.
[cheers and applause]
Angela: [00:00:48] The call that started it all was from my sister, Michelle. She was calling from California, long distance, back when there was such a thing. She was telling me that she had her baby, her first, a boy named Jack. [sighs] I was hit with this overwhelming desire to be there as soon as possible.
We lost our mom. Our mom died when we were kids. I was 12 years old, Michelle was 9 and our little sister was 5 years old. I learned that as the oldest, I was often the first to experience those times when being without your mother really sucked. I would always make sure to warn the others. And this was the time. I had two kids of my own by then, and I knew that postpartum was one of the suckiest times without your mother.
So, she asks me when I'm going to come out and I said, "As soon as I can." We both know that that's not going to be anytime real soon. We just didn't have the money. We did not have the money. I would have had to put the whole thing on the credit card. My husband and I agreed, well, I agreed, that it was for emergencies only.
Back before I became a stay-at-home mom, I had a career and I made my own money, which I missed. But I really missed spending my own money [audience laughter] and charging it. But now, I shared that card and I decided I wasn't even going to bring it up. I hung up the phone and I found my boys, ages two and four, and I said, "You got a new cousin. His name's Jack. I'm not making lunch, we're going out for lunch."
We went to Wendy's, because it was Frosties all around. [audience laughter] I had discovered Junior Frosties were $1, and it bought me 15 minutes' peace, [audience laughter] uninterrupted. Now, it made a terrible mess and I was willing to clean that up for those 15 minutes. So, we go to Wendy's. These were the drive-through days. The kids, the four-year-old, anytime he gets out of the car, he's running, and the two-year-old is chasing him. It's winter, so they're bundled up, and then I got to unbundle them and bundle them up. It's so much to bring in the car seat and the diaper bag.
So, we go through the drive-through of Wendy's. And our favorite drive-thru lady is there, we call her Wendy, [audience laughter] and she hands me the tray and the three cups are there. I'll never forget that first cup. One of them has this writing on it and it says, "Wendy's AirTran Free Flight Giveaway." I'm reading the rules there. It seems like it's true. It's a giveaway. There's no sweepstakes, not a contest or trivia or game pieces. All you had to do was find 64 of these promo cups, [audience laughter] says "Select few specially marked," and they would send you a voucher for a free round-trip ticket anywhere AirTran flew in the continental US. And I'm thinking, I'm looking at my ticket to California right now. I'm going to California.
So, that night, my husband gets home from work and I tell him the good news about Jack, and then I show him my cup and I say, "By the way, I will be traveling to California this spring." He looks at it and he said, "Oh, okay honey, just 63 more." And I said, "Yeah.” “So, how can I help you?" And I said, "All right, so when you go to work tomorrow, tell everybody at work to eat at Wendy's every day just for the next four weeks [audience laughter] and bring me home those cups." He's like, "Well, you know, I really can't tell people where to eat for lunch." And I said, "Well, you can strongly urge them, Mark, if you want to help me."
So, after the first week-- Let me tell you, that first week, I am frequenting the drive-through. And it's true, they were a select few. [audience laughter] After the first week, I have 12 cups and this Diet Coke-distended belly. [audience laughter] I know I've got to amp up my game. So, the second week, I pick up the oldest from preschool and we head straight into the dining. We go from the drive-through right into the dining room, and I bring everything in. I bring crayons, little dinosaurs, Thomas the Tank Engine, everything. We set up camp and I troll for cups. [audience laughter]
I might see somebody with a promo cup about to throw it away and I'll say, "Here, let me get that for you." This is a small town, but even that kind of courtesy freaks people out. [audience laughter] And also, I found that when I was doing that, I might tip people off to the contest and create competition for myself. So, I learned to just sit back, and watch and wait. And then, I had to wait till the garbage got high enough, so that when I reached in and tried to rifle through and grab those cups that I saw, that I could reach them.
This was going pretty well. I was yielding more the second week. And then, I realized we're almost at the end of the second week, and it wasn't enough. I really had to amp up my game. So, I decided to lose an earring over the garbage. [audience laughter] Like, "Oh no, it's got to be in there." I'd be digging through, because I'd seen all these cups at the bottom that I could never get. It was like, oh, rifling down, "Oh, it's somewhere there" I'd push them up, those promo cups, push them up and then know that I'm going to go back for them later.
One day, I get this tap, tap, tap on my back, and I pull my head out of the garbage. [audience laughter] It's this skinny, pimply, nervous teenage worker. I see behind him, his manager. Yeah, he sends a boy out to do a man's job. [audience laughter] He's standing behind the counter with his arms crossed, and this kid says, "Uh, my manager says you got to go." I was like, "Okay.” “And never come back." [audience laughter] "Okay." So, we decamp, and I pack everything up and I'm hustling us out. And then, of course, my oldest one says, "We're being kicked out, aren't we, Mommy?" I said, “Yeah.”
So, we go into the car, and it's freezing. So, I got to sit there and warm up the car. I'm sitting there thinking, forget it. I'm not going to make it to California. I'm not going to make it. Every day, my sister would send me another more adorable picture of Little Jack. And every day, we would go to that dining room. But if I couldn't get in there anymore, and we're in a small town, I didn't know where the next Wendy's was miles. I released the quest. And then, I see them taking the trash out to the dumpster, [audience laughter] and I'm thinking, those things are pregnant with promo cups. [audience laughter]
So, that night, Mark gets home, and I said, "Okay, honey, me and the boys got kicked out of the dining room at Wendy's. [audience laughter] I'm pretty sure forever. We can't go back, but you can go. I think I'm going to try to use the drive-through still, but that doesn't mean anything. What I need you to do is I need you to watch the boys, because I'm going over to Wendy's and I'm casing Wendy's." [audience laughter]
His skepticism and concern is very thinly veiled at this time, which only fuels my drive to do this. So, I get there, I'm sitting in the parking lot and I'm watching. I'm looking for patterns in how they take out the garbage. [audience laughter] I got two things going for me. One, there seems to be a bit of a pattern. And two, like I said, it's freezing. Those workers, they don't have a coat. They come out, they toss the bag into the dumpster, not even paying attention and they run back inside. So, the next night, I go diving. [audience laughter]
I got my own little cat suit, all black. I got my black rain boots. It is very hard work. [audience laughter] Hard work, disgusting work, dangerous work. Our little Wendy's was on a really narrow lot. So, anytime somebody was waiting for the drive-through, their headlights were, boom, on that dumpster. Like a spotlight. I was the show. [audience laughter] So, I had to stay stooped down the entire time. It was painful, because if I ever even got up to stretch, I'd be like whack-a-mole [audience laughter] to my friends and neighbors. So, I had to stay stooped. It's freezing. It's dark. It's so dark that I got used to-- Well, it was disgusting, okay?
First of all, the kitchen bags were the worst. It's that fryer grease, or as my grandma would call it, lard, all over. Then the bathroom bags were a close second. But I got good at feeling and discovering the lobby bags, which was promo cup gold. [audience laughter] Of course, I'm trying to be very fast, because it is freezing. And I don't care. I don't care. I am loving this job. I'm loving it. It gets me out of the house. [audience laughter] I'm bringing home tangible results from my efforts. Unlike most of my work, which truly is never done, this has an end in sight, and it's called California.
So, every night, I kiss my kids good night and I go to my job in the dumpster. [audience laughter] And I'm loving it, loving it. I even do so well that I'm devising a Henry Ford processing thing at home. And every night, I got to get home, and Mark makes me go straight to the basement every night and change, because I reek. [audience laughter] I do not blame the man. I have got pickles in my hair and cigarette butts stuck to me. Oh, yes. And so, I change and then I'm able to re-enter the fold of the family. I process my cups.
I dump out the cups and then soak them in a hot, soapy water in the kitchen and I let them air dry. And then, at the very end of the night, I take my cups and I go into the den and start cutting out the coupons while Mark and I watch Frontline. [audience laughter] It's very satisfying work. At the end of those four weeks, I fill a number 10 envelope and send it back. And that spring, I walk into our airport, straight for the AirTran ticket counter and hand the man my voucher. He looks at it and he goes, "Oh, you're one of those.” [audience laughter] I said, “Yeah.”
“So, you really found 64 of those things?" I said, "No," and I turn and I reveal my husband and my two kids. [audience laughter] I hand the man three more vouchers [audience laughter] and I say, "No, sir, 256." [audience cheers and applause]
It felt so good to walk, lead my family onto a plane and be in sunny California. We were all going to meet Jack. I was going to be with Michelle. I was so proud. It felt great, you know? I was providing for us. It's just a great feeling to be the person to bring home the bacon, [audience laughter] even if it wasn't in my hair.
[cheers and applause]
Meg: [00:14:28] Angela Dohrmann is a writer and actor. It turns out the contest was retired, because the giveaway resulted in promotional cup madness, and there were dumpster diving incidents reported across the country. Angela says, if the contest hadn't been retired, she would have done it all again, but this time, she'd head straight for the dumpsters. You can find out more about Angela and see pictures of her prized trip to California on our website, themoth.org.
Coming up, a fisherman, a lobster trap, and a boat called the Nancy Joe, when The Moth Radio Hour continues.
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Jay: [00:15:24] The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. And presented by PRX.
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Meg: [00:16:37] This is The Moth Radio Hour from PRX. I'm Meg Bowles.
We regularly produce a Mainstage event at the State Theater in Portland, Maine. And for one of those shows, I went on the hunt for people in the area with interesting stories to share. I found a local monthly journal called The Fisherman's Voice. Mike Crow, the founding manager and editor, described it as news for and by fishermen.
He told me about Jason Lemos, a lobster fisherman who grew up along the New Hampshire seacoast. So, I reached out. And at first, Jason was like, "You want me to stand up in front of how many people to tell this story?" But in the end, he agreed and took the stage at the State Theater in an evening we produced with support from local Public Radio MPBN. Here’s Jason Lemos, live at The Moth.
[cheers and applause]
Jason: [00:17:26] I'm a third-generation commercial lobsterman.
[cheers and applause]
I grew up in a large Italian family, large Italian fishing family. It started with my late grandfather and the arrival of his mom and dad, who came over by boat from Italy to the US. They settled in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and made their home along the waterfront.
My grandfather, along with his four brothers, all grew up on the water. They taught themselves how to lobster fish and build lobster traps. In turn, they passed that family tradition down through the generations. You might say salt water runs through our veins.
My grandmother and grandfather ran a small grocery store called Marconi’s Market. They sold live lobsters and famous lobster rolls. I can remember going out fishing with my grandfather, growing up aboard his boat named the Nancy Marianne, which was named after my mom, the firstborn and my aunt Marianne, who's the second born. You see, in our family, we have a tradition of naming lobster boats after family members to bring us good luck while we're out on the water.
I remember going out with him. He'd bring me down, sit me on a bucket. Put me on the boat, and keep me away from the ropes. As he hauled the lobster traps up, he'd hand the legal lobsters to me, so I could put the lobster bands on the claws. I had to be careful not to get bit. He taught me everything I knew about lobster fishing. He was an amazing man.
Now, on any given day, nowadays, there's seven family boats out on the water at any given point. On October 31st, I steamed out. I started hauling along the beach, untangling traps. It was a gorgeous day. It was flat calm. The seas were just like glass. You saw the sunrays fleck down off the clouds as the sun came up. I finished up hauling there and straightened some traps out along the beach, and then I steamed off the waves. I was on the main New Hampshire line and I came upon trawl number 17. I grabbed the buoy and started hauling it aboard. Now, a trawl is a buoy on each end and then there's a row of traps attached to the rope. As I hauled each trap up, I put the legal-sized lobsters in an orange basket. I baited each trap and then stuck them on the trawl table.
Now, a trawl table is a flat area where we store the traps. It hangs inside the boat. I finished hauling the last trap and I saw my cousin Aaron fishing about a half mile away from me. I called on the walkie-talkie phone and we made a plan to catch up that day. We said, “Well, after we get done, we’ll steam in together.” I hung up the phone and I turned the boat back around. Now, I fish out of a 26-foot Duffy. I fish by myself. My boat name is the Nancy Joe, which is named after my mom and my grandfather.
I turned the boat back around to set trawl number 17. I lined it up and pushed the first trap off. With the boat going in one direction and the traps going in the opposite direction, each of them, with the friction basically pulls them off in the opposite direction. The last trap went off. And just as I'd done so many times before, I picked up the buoy and the coil of rope to toss it overboard. Before I knew it, I was pulled and dragged to the back of the boat. I didn't have a split second to react. I didn't have time to pull the boat out of gear. I didn't have time to grab a knife off the hauling station.
At this point, I was thrown up against the back of the stern, the trawl table and I was dragging with my pointer finger and my thumb. The rope had become cinched around, and I was dragging eight traps. The boat is going in one direction and the traps are wanting to pull me overboard. I fought to get that off my hand. Every time I kept moving around, I kept losing my footing. And before I knew it, I was laying up on top of the trawl table just like a trap with the tops of my feet, with my boots, curled around the edge of the trawl table holding on.
I know going in that frigid Atlantic Ocean at that time of the year was not going to be a good situation. I wanted the tips of my fingers to come off. I couldn't hold on any longer. I had to calm myself down and I had to not panic or I was going to drown. I said a prayer, and I took a deep breath and I let go. I kicked my boots off. One came off in the boat and the other one came off as I hit the water. I got dragged down towards the ocean floor. I felt the traps hit, where I became entangled in and the line was about 10 feet from the surface. It slacked. And then, I was able to free my hand. I felt those traps at the bottom and was then able to free my hand.
I swam like a rocket up to the surface. I popped up just like a lobster buoy. I was gasping for air. I started screaming. I grabbed that lobster buoy that I had become entangled with. I stuck it between my legs and used it as extra flotation. My grandfather always taught me, “If you fall overboard, grab a buoy. Hopefully, someone will come to find you.” I screamed my head off. I thought maybe my cousin Aaron, who was fishing half a mile away, maybe he saw something. There’s another boat off in the distance. I said, maybe they saw what happened. I yelled and screamed. Nobody was coming. A split second, I left all my oilskins and my fleece jacket on, because I knew the situation I was in. I needed to keep my core body temperature as warm as I could.
Before I knew it, the boat started to circle. And before I knew it, I was staring the bow of the boat down. It was coming right at me. I debated for a split second to try and say, “Oh, maybe I can pull myself up via the wash rail and pull myself back in.” But I knew if I slipped, I would get sucked under by the prop wash and I didn't want to go that way. I kicked off that buoy and swam like hell and got away from it. I actually kicked off the side of the boat and swam about 200 yards away to another lobster buoy. I grabbed that buoy and I put that one between my legs also.
At that point, it was getting extremely cold. I’d been in the water for quite some time. It was like millions and millions of needles sticking me all in my body, all over. I said a prayer to my grandfather. I said, “Go tap my cousin Aaron on the shoulder and tell him to come get me.” I was at peace with myself at that point. I said a lot of prayers, and I knew I had to fight to stay alive for my family, for my mom and my brother. I was starting to really hallucinate. The fog and the haze were starting to come in. I was trying to figure out how I could wrap that line and that buoy I was on the line around my legs, so that if I did pass, they would be able to find and fish my body out.
In a split second, as the fog and the haze started to come in, I thought it was a mirage. I saw this white boat coming out of off in the distance. As I looked up, and I don't know if this guy sees me or not, I started waving my arms, and my hands, and yelling and screaming. Then I knew he saw me. There was a puff of black smoke came out of his exhaust stack, and he gave it fuel, came right over to me. Pulled up beside me. This is a short guy. He's all by himself. He reached down and grabbed me. He says, "I got a three count here. One, two, three." He says, "Give me anything you got." At this point, I was toast. I had nothing left in the tank.
He flopped me up over that wash rail, right into his boat, just like a fish. I looked up at him and I says-- The first words out of his mouth were, "Man, you're not white." [audience laughter] I said to him, I say, "You got to call my cousin Aaron on the VHF and tell him you got me." He says he's fishing half a mile over here. So, he got on the radio and told him that he had got me and was calling the Coast Guard. He got me into the Coast Guard station pretty quick. I remember they loaded me from the boat, and they put me on the float and started cutting my clothes off.
I leaned over to one of the Marine Patrol officers and I said, "Am I going to die?" And he said, "No." He says, "You're just really cold. We're going to warm you up." [audience laughter] So, they loaded me in the ambulance and they had me over to the hospital pretty quick. Meanwhile, with all this playing out on the radio, and how close-knit a family we are, my cousins and relatives dropped everything they were doing when they were out on the water fishing and came in to meet me over at the hospital. I remember, as I got to the hospital, the doctors, they put blankets over me and they were blowing warm air over me, and I heard them off in the distance. They took a core body temperature, and they said it was 84 degrees. They said, "We can't believe that you're talking to us and that you're coherent."
So, they put IVs in me. My mom and my brother were there. [sobs] I remember my mom putting her hand on my forehead and saying, "It's going to be all right." And meanwhile, the doctors are working on me. And then, I see them off on the side again and they're chatting, and I overhear them and they're like-- Well, all my cousins there have been out fishing for the day. They smell like lobster bait. They've all showed up at the ER. So, let me tell you, the doctors are like, "We got to get these guys in to see him and get them the heck out of here." [audience laughter]
They were pretty ripe. [audience laughter] So, two by two, they said, "Let's bring them in," because later they found out that people were coming in for medical services, and they were like, "We got to get out of here. We're not even going to come in." So, they brought them in two by two. I remember looking up at my cousin Billy and my cousin Vinny, and I said, "I screwed up." And they're like, "No, you're here. That’s all that counts."
They kept me in the hospital that evening, overnight for observation, and they let me go the next day. I remember my mom coming to pick me up. We got in the car. They were adamant. They told me to go home. The doctors discharged me and they said, "Go home and relax," and they were adamant about not getting cold. [audience laughter] So, I leaned over to my mom and I said, "We’re not going home." I said, "We're going to the boat." So, she drove me down to the dock, the family dock and I got out, walked across the dock, and I walked down on the float and I got on my boat.
It was a cloudy day, and I sat down. I thanked my grandfather for that day. I thanked my boat for not killing me. As lobstermen, our boats are extensions of our lives. When you go out on your boat, you come back on your boat. And the way that I came in that day is never a way that you want to come in. That's why I'm one lucky lobsterman.
[cheers and applause]
Meg: [00:31:09] That was Jason Lemos. According to the journal, Fisherman’s Voice, falling overboard is the leading cause of fatalities among lobstermen. Jason said, that day, he discovered the will to survive is a powerful instinct. Here's Jason talking with Moth host, Peter Aguero.
Peter: [00:31:26] So, Jason, great job tonight. How do you feel?
Jason: [00:31:30] Tonight was like stress, because I've never done this before. I have never. I’ve gotten up on stage. I'm a lobsterman.
Peter: [00:31:36] Yeah.
I have never gotten up on stage and spoke in front of-- I think there was over thousand people here. I've never done that before. So, it was just a unique and interesting experience. I'm glad that I was here to be able to do that and tell my story.
Peter: [00:31:51] I guess one question I was going to ask was, can you describe what a perfect moment on the boat is? If you can think of--?
Jason: [00:32:00] When you steam out in the morning, and you watch the sun come up over the horizon, and it reflects off the clouds down, and across the water and just looks like the heavens are shining down on you. When it's calm and peaceful and it's just a surreal, it's a perfect time. And then, also, of course, when we're catching lobsters is also a good moment, when we haul that trawl. You never know what's going to come up in those traps. I had the experience last year of catching an albino lobster, which is a white lobster, which is one in a million chances of catching. You never know what you're getting, what is going to happen that day that you're on the water. You just say a prayer as you go out, and you come back in and you hope your tanks are full.
Meg: [00:32:50] You can find out more about Jason and see a picture of the Nancy Joe by visiting our website. And while you're there, why not pitch us your story? You can call our pitch line and leave a two-minute pitch right on the website. But before you do, take a look at our tips and tricks for how to craft a great pitch.
Laura: [00:33:08] So, I'm 11 years old and I'm standing in the middle of our kitchen at 10 minutes to midnight, crying hysterically. Our new puppy had woken me up by chewing up a special doll my grandfather had gotten me, and he had recently passed away, so I was a mess. Next to me was my cousin Allison, who was eight, who was sleeping over, also crying hysterically. My crying had woken her up and reminded her of her father, who had also recently passed away, and she was now inconsolable. Next to her are my two younger brothers, Michael and Jonathan, and her younger brother David, who are now all crying, because we're crying. And then, there's my mother standing in front of us, who's basically by herself because my father had recently left her. Needless to say, not a super happy time period for my family in general.
She looked at all of us and made one of those inspired parenting decisions. She said, "Wait, do you know what time it is? It's time for midnight madness. Quick, gather all the sugar foods you can find and bring them to the picnic table in the backyard. Hurry, hurry, before midnight!" And we did. We grabbed Captain Crunch, and Ring Dings, and ice cream and Chips Ahoy, and went in the backyard and sat in our Holly Hobby nightgowns and Tom and Jerry pajamas and ate all of it.
It’s like we were suddenly transported to a magical land in some kid's movie where anything can happen. We all still talk about Midnight Madness, all five of us. And not only because of the sugar, because in one moment, my mother transported us from profound sadness to absolute magic. She showed us that in the midst of hard times, there's still room for sitting under the stars at midnight and having a picnic in your pajamas.
Meg: [00:35:02] Remember, you can pitch us your story on our website, themoth.org.
Coming up, venturing into the wild world of customer care at the United States Postal Service, when The Moth Radio Hour continues.
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Jay: [00:35:40] The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. And presented by the Public Radio Exchange, prx.org.
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Meg: [00:36:54] This is The Moth Radio Hour from PRX. I'm Meg Bowles.
And our last story comes from Zellia Enjoli Tatiana. But most people who know her just call her Z. I first met Z through The Moth's open-mic StorySLAM event in Detroit, where she lives. I called her up. As we were talking, she started telling me about how her job as a customer care agent at the United States Postal Service taught her something about herself she never knew. Here's Zellia Enjoli Tatiana, live at the Erin Davis Hall in New York City.
[applause]
Zellia: [00:37:26] I’ve been a mail clerk for five years, and I wanted to try something new. And so, I took a test to become a mechanic, and I passed. But there were no open positions. And so, I thought I’d try my hand at being a customer care agent at the National Call Center for the United States Postal Service.
My first week of training, the hardest thing for me to master was the greeting. “Thank you for calling your United States Postal Service. My name is Z. To better assist you, may I have your name and zip code, please?” I was so used to saying, “Hello.” [audience laughter] I had to break out of that. And there were two rules. One, you had to say “Your United States Postal Service,” not The or USPS. And two, you had to repeat everything back. Say, for example, the caller says, “Hey, my name is Michael Greenlee. My zip code is 48215.” I have to say, “Thanks, Michael,” first name only and no “ma’am” or “sir,” you might get it wrong. “That was 48215, thanks. And how can I help?”
After four weeks of training, I get introduced to the workroom floor. I’m anxious. I’m nervous. I’m just a baby dragon. As we go out, I notice that there are carpeted floors. There are about 200 cubicle desks spread about with matching chairs. There are no windows. There's no paper allowed. It’s a paperless environment for security purposes. And as you look about, there are TVs mounted on the wall that show the call queue. When you get a call, there's a very high-pitched ding in your headset.
There are two main reasons why people dial the National Call Center. That’s complaints or compliments. Complaints or compliments. And guess which I got the most though? [audience laughter] You guessed it, complaints. And mostly, because America’s a little impatient, tad bit rude, [audience laughter] might be selfish, maybe entitled. [audience laughter]
One day, I took a call from a woman and her complaint, is that her carrier refuses to bring a 40-pound bag of cat litter to her sixth-floor apartment, [audience laughter] biweekly. I gladly document her concern, give her confirmation number and send her on her way. Another day, I take a call from a man. I start with my greeting, most politely. “Thank you for calling your United States Postal Service. My name--” and he cuts me off. And so, I know right off the bat that he’s upset. He’s been on hold for an hour, maybe more. Our hold music is the wackest. [audience laughter]
And so, I hear him out, I take some notes. When he's done, I explain to him, "I'll be helping you document what you've told me, so that we can forward it to your LPO, local post office. It'll be addressed and resolved." I said, "Spell your first and last name for me, please." He huffs. [huffs] "Yeah, P. You know, like pterodactyl." [audience laughter] So, I paused for a moment. "Okay, that was P as in pneumonia, correct?" [audience laughter] Okay, guy. This guy’s testing my competency. I can hear him chuckling under his breath. I'm smarter than you, guy. [audience laughter] So, imagine getting calls like that, and then getting calls where there are these long sequences of tracking numbers all day and people have no sense of cadence on top of that. [audience laughter]
One day, I took a call from a woman and her complaint is that her mail is being misdelivered. And as I'm documenting her issues, she starts to tell me some personal things from her life. She told me about how her doctor of over 30 years had ignored her complaint about a lump that formed at the top of her hairline. And she starts to get emotional as she says that that lump now weighs five pounds down her face. I'm the type of person, if I see someone cry, I cry. And so, on this call, I'm emotional too. And by the end of it, I try to regroup, and gather myself and it was just ding. No time. There was the next call.
And that wasn’t the only call I got like that. I got a lot of calls like that, from people who were ill or ailing, from people who were elderly, from people who were lonely and needed someone to talk to. And for me, that was the most difficult kind of call. I would look around at these other 199 desks and everyone else, this is a breeze. I mean, they’re just shooting through it. Everything’s fine. And not for me. It feels like I’m leaving work with the weight of the world on my shoulders. I can't just leave this here at work.
After about four days, I felt a bit bogged down. I felt a little depressed, like maybe this baby dragon needs somebody to talk to. [chuckles] And so, I sought out a therapist. She was super cool. She was down to earth. She had a brilliant sense of humor, like moi. [audience laughter] She listened to me intently for some time and then she said, "Z, you know you’re an empath." And I say, "Okay." She says, "Well, what that means is that other person’s emotions, you experience them exactly, identically." I think, back to work, they’re crying, I’m crying. I’m like, "Yeah, I do."
She says, "Yes, I know. And maybe this just isn’t the best position for you." And I think, who would’ve thought working at Customer Care could be so difficult?” And for me, it was. I’m back at work and I’m checking my emails before the shift starts. We get what’s called a flagship message. And it can contain any number of things, like system updates or software changes. It can tell you weather alerts. In this particular day, it says that there’s severe weather headed toward Texas, and there are two impending storms headed toward the lower United States, in Puerto Rico. I’ll read it. Take a moment.
It was September 20th when both those storms slammed into Puerto Rico. And immediately, the call queue burst at the seams for international and domestic calls. I wasn’t the only person that felt the gloom. When I looked around, everybody else was sad too. And the calls just kept coming. It was ding after ding. I took a call from a woman in Puerto Rico. And she said she was in the line at the grocery store. And so, I listen, I take some notes.
She says, “I finally reached the front of the line, and I’m hopeful.” And she says, “But there’s no food. There’s no water. The entire store is empty.” [sobs] I think, oh God, what can I do? I’m at my desk at the National Call Center, and my job is to document. But what do you do when someone’s concern is staying alive to the next day? It was ding after ding after ding. People were calling for batteries. People were calling for water, for food, for clothes, for medicine. It was just ding after ding. It was like people were calling 911 almost.
It was 06:30 one evening, [sobs] and I took my last call of the day. It was from a woman in Puerto Rico. She wanted to track a package. I think, easy enough. Long sequences of tracking numbers. And so, I track it for her. And in the background, very distinctly, I can hear a man’s voice. And he’s moaning. He’s groaning in pain. And the woman explains to me, that package, the package she’s calling for. “That’s his medication,” she says. “He needs it to survive.” And I’m heartbroken. I’m entirely helpless. All I can do is document what’s happening. And so, I do.
After so long, we couldn’t even do that, because the entire electrical grid in Puerto Rico failed. It failed leaving 3.4 million people without power. It was devastating. So many people died. So many people died. [sobs] I get home after a long week and I throw my keys on the counter and I think about how my therapist says, because I’m so emotional, maybe this job just isn’t the best fit, because I’m internalizing. I’m going home with these people in my thoughts and in my heart, which isn’t bad, she said. You know, just maybe a bit much for full-time work. [audience laughter]
I notice there’s a letter on the table as I throw my keys down. It has the blue eagle logo on it. So, I know it’s from work. I run over, snatch it off the table. It’s a letter about the mechanic position. And it asks me, will I accept? And I think, [screams] “God has heard my postal cries. [audience laughter] God has heard my postal cries.” Of course, I’ll accept. [sniffs] Of course. And so, I leave. I leave the National Call Center to become a maintenance mechanic, where I have tools, and I identify a problem and I fix it. I see it work immediately [chuckles], which is a total switch-up from being a customer care agent.
And just like there are people that can laugh their way through haunted houses, there are people that can work at call centers and let all the difficult interactions slide off their backs like water off a duck. I’m not one of those people. [chuckles and sobs] There’s no amount of training or scripting that can prepare you for a natural disaster or for any stranger that decides to dial 1-800-ASK-USPS. [audience laughter] I think best of all, what I’ve learned about myself, is that I’m so empathetic. It’s almost pathetic. [audience laughter]
[cheers and applause]
Meg: [00:50:53] That was Zellia Enjoli Tatiana. In addition to being a master problem-solver mechanic, Z’s also a writer. You can find out more about Z in her newest book of poetry entitled Whatever on our website, themoth.org. Z feels she has a better understanding of her emotions having been a call agent. She says, “I’ve learned there’s no such thing as too sensitive. There’s just me being exactly who I am.”
That’s it for this episode. We hope you’ll join us again next time for The Moth Radio Hour.
[overture music]
Jay: [00:51:45] Your host this hour was Meg Bowles. Meg also directed the stories in the show along with Michelle Jalowski. The rest of The Moth’s directorial staff includes Catherine Burns, Sarah Haberman, Sarah Austin Jenness and Jenifer Hixson. Production support from Emily Couch.
Moth stories are true, as remembered and affirmed by the storytellers. Our pitch came from Laura Bailey in Los Angeles. Our theme music is by The Drift. Other music in this hour from John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Stellwagen Symphonette and the Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet. You can find links to all the music we use at our website.
The Moth Radio Hour is produced by me, Jay Allison, with Viki Merrick at Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. This hour was produced with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Moth Radio Hour is presented by The Public Radio Exchange, prx.org. For more about our podcast, for information on pitching us your own story and everything else, go to our website, themoth.org.