Just Ask

 

“No, no. You don’t understand,” a friend was saying. “My mom once returned forty eaten chicken wings.”

“What?”

“She had served them at a house party and they were eaten, but apparently they weren’t that good. So the next day, she went back to the bar where she’d ordered them and asked for her money back. She told him they’d eaten most of them, but they weren’t very good. And the owner not only refunded her credit card, he gave her a $50 gift certificate on top of it—to make things right.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, you just have to ask, you know. It doesn’t work every time, but sometimes it does. She’s gotten us free upgrades in hotel rooms, discounts on clothes—she even got an airline to give her a $100 voucher because they ran out of coffee on the flight. Really. You just have to ask—“

*

 The next time I was on a flight, I asked for a Diet Dr Pepper. They were out.

“Oh, you’re out, huh?” I said. The $100 voucher came to mind. All I had to do was ask.

“Well, could I, uh . . . could I have, maybe, a, uh—“

The flight attendant frowned. I thought of chicken wings and upgrades—and all the other things that could be mine if I weren’t afraid of a two-letter word.

“Club soda, I guess,” I said.