The Double Agent

May 7, 2019

I called my mother last night to tell her the good news. I’d bought the secondhand car I’d viewed. At the mention of ‘car’ she started telling me how she knew I’d cave in and pay too much.

‘Your sister Jocelyn would have sorted her out,’ said Mum. ‘She knows how to drive a bargain.’

My mother was drinking chardonnay with my brother Robert and was playing to the audience. She only vaguely listened to the story about the mechanic, how he’d found the car in good condition and thought it was priced reasonably.

She started paying attention when I mentioned how the same mechanic, who I’d paid to assess the car, had told the owner that her car was great and reasonably priced.

‘He’s like a double agent,’ I said. ‘He took away my bargaining power.’

Mum was outraged. ‘What a bastard,’ she said. ‘Don’t pay him!’