The Amorous Salesman Pays A Call: (“Be Patient Please, Floyd Pumice Aims To Please”)

Abstract

While Pop works in the lot behind his café, Floyd Pumice, a romantic product salesman, drops in. Although Pop frowns on Pumice for selling his merchandise in the café, his counterman, “Pete the Greek,” welcomes the opportunity to watch Pumice ply his trade on the café’s patrons. Pumice, who adroitly tailors his sales pitch to his customers, closes sales with a long-married, middle-aged man with a wife of the same age, a young single man who is desperate for sexual relations with his steady girlfriend, and a young single man suffering from feelings of sexual inadequacy. When Pop unexpectedly enters the café, Pete the Greek and Pumice must find a quick and graceful way to get out of an awkward situation.