How Could I Get Him to Talk to Me?

I was very pleased when Moe actually talked to me, but getting to know him wasn't as easy as I hoped. Every Friday night he would come through the cafeteria, choose the same Prime Rib dinner, salad, and Tapioca pudding, then walk up to the cash register so I could ring him up. I would smile, he would smile, I would ask him how he was doing, he would say, “Just fine,” I would tell him how much he owed, he would give me his money, and then he would walk off to the other end of the cafeteria to sit at his favorite table and eat his dinner. Usually he ate with a certain group of Temple workers, they all had breaks at the same time, sometimes he sat next to other people he knew.

I tried to think up clever ways to engage him in a conversation, but I wasn't very good at it, and usually there were people standing in line behind him and I didn't want to make them wait. If there was a lull while he was eating, sometimes I would get my wash cloth and go around the dining room, wiping off empty tables. Once in awhile that gave me an excuse to pass Moe's table, and then I would talk to him and his friends, but he usually didn't say much. The other people would, though. They seemed to enjoy trying to get Moe to talk just as much as I did.

One weekend my sister, Linda came over to visit with me and Sharon, my baby sister. Sharon had to tell her all about my new job at the Temple, and Moe. She had been the first one to tell me about him. The fellow who cut her hair worked with Moe at the Temple on Friday nights, and he had told Sharon about Moe.

To my surprise, Linda recognized Moe's name and description. “He was in my old ward down in Lehi,” she exclaimed. “I'm sure it's the same guy. Really tall, white hair, and a mustache?”

“Yeah, that's him,” I agreed. “What do you know about him?”

“Not much, really,” Linda said, trying to remember. “But I'll call my friends and find out about him for you.”

She called me that evening to give me the low down. “I was right,” Linda began as soon as I answered the phone. “That is the Moe who was in my old ward. I was pretty sure it had to be, after all, how many Moe's can there be? Who on earth would name a child that, anyway?”

We laughed, and Linda went on. “He's been single for a lot of years, but everyone says he's a really nice guy. But they also say he's really shy until you get to know him, especially around women.”

“Well, that would explain why I was having such a hard time getting him to talk to me,” I reasoned.