Silent Bryant
Jim was having a bad day and it was quickly made worst by silent Bryant. Silent Bryant was a client Jim had been dealing with. He was a peculiar sort of character.
Silent Bryant hired Jim to remodel his kitchen and promised him in a non-assuming gentle voice, “if the kitchen goes well we will have you do the rest of the house”. Jim started to see red flags early on with Silent Bryant. One day as he was in the kitchen, demolishing the floor, the visqueen plastic was slowly zipped down, and Mr. Bryant looked through with one eye. Without noticing anything Jim and his crew worked on, until he heard “Hey Jim”, the whole crew jumped, Jim anxiously turned around, and there was but a single green eye starring through the opening in the plastic. Bryant began to speak, with a light whisper.
“Hey Jim, sorry to bother, was just checking in, making sure everything is going okay.”
“Yeah, everything is fine Bryant, Thanks”. Silent Bryant zipped the plastic back up and tiptoed away.
Jim looked at his crew and shook his head, then continued.
The next day as they were finishing up the demo, Jim noticed a motionless shadow around the corner. He walked over and there was Bryant standing by, crunched up and skinny, as if he was trying to hide himself behind the wall.
“Oh, hey Jim” said Bryant Softly “I am just checking in”.
At this point Jim was mildly creeped out as he glanced suspiciously at Bryant huddled around the corner.
“Bryant” said Jim, “Please stop worrying and just let us do our job”.
“Sure, no problem, Jim” as he passive aggressively walked away.
The next few days brought even more anomalies, as Jim started to notice tools and bits of materials going missing, and certain parts of the job being sabotaged. There was cut wire in odd spots, pieces of drywall broken, clogged drainpipes, Jim, rubbed his head in confusion and asked Bryant if he had noticed anything odd going on, while they were not there.
“No, of course not” said Bryan nervously.
After these strange events continued for a few days Jim decided to set up a camera, and alas! His menace was discovered. On reviewing the video Jim discovered Bryant. He moved around the kitchen silently and swiftly looking around to make sure he was not seen. He then picked up a hammer, and went around the corner, where Jim suddenly heard clawing sounds through the recording.
“Take that! And that! Think you can tell me not to worry, take that!!”
Jim’s mouth was open in shock, as Bryant silently approached.
“Hi Jim, there is a scratch on my hardwood floor, I think it was from you guys, can you fix it?”
Jim, looked at Bryant bewildered and pissed. “We are pulling off the job”, he quickly responded.
“What… Why, this is nonsense, I will sue! I Will SUE!!!”
“Sue away” said Jim as he and his crew packed up.
A few weeks later Jim was in court, Silent Bryant, not knowing the evidence Jim had against him smugly showed up, thinking he would have a sure win. Once the tape was shown, Bryant’s faced turned white, as he nearly passed out.
The judge rewarded Jim the win and money for pain and suffering. But it was still not enough to recoup his losses.