Before he could say more than a word or two, the chemist told him,
"Now, just a minute, listen to my side of it. This morning the alarm
failed to go off, so I was late getting up. I went without breakfast and
hurried out to the car, just to realize that I had locked the house with
both house and car keys inside and had to break a window to get my keys.
Then, driving a little too fast, I got a speeding ticket. Later,when I
was about three blocks from the store, I had a flat tire.

When I finally got to the store a bunch of people were waiting for me to
open up. I got the store opened and started waiting on these people, and
all the time the darn phone was ringing off the hook. "Then I had
to break a roll of pound coins against the till drawer to make
change, and they spilled all over the floor. I had to get down on my
hands and knees to pick up the coins and the phone was still ringing.
When I came up I cracked my head on the open till drawer, which made me
stagger back against a showcase with a bunch of perfume bottles on it.
Half of them hit the floor and broke.

Meanwhile, the phone is still ringing with no let up, and I finally got
back to answer it.