He would never ask his question directly; he would always precede the question that he actually wanted answered by several other questions or statements.

"How are you doing?"

"How was your day?"

"Do you always take the subway to work?

"Do you buy a pass or use tokens?"

"I buy a pass but I lost this month's so I have to buy tokens."

"My ATM card isn't working."

"I thought I had an extra token but I don't"

"Can I borrow two dollars?"


Stuff like that

If you want two dollars, just ask for the two dollars.

Anyway, one day he asked a question when I was very busy.

"Is that your real question?" I asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Is that the question you really want to ask or is there some other question? What's the last question you want to ask? Can we just jump to that one?"

He got a little bit mad but I did get the question quicker.