You meet all kinds of people throughout your life. The important thing about people is that they are all people. Everyone is different. For a writer, knowing about people is how we create characters. You have to observe many different characteristics, and most of our characters are composites of real people. I will devote the next few chapters to some very interesting people who are fodder for great characters. 

JOHN 

John was short, standing only about 5'5" with graying brown hair and stooped shoulders. He walked with slightly bowed legs and shuffled his feet. He worked as the maintenance man in my store. He tried to please everyone, but he often fell short in his endeavors.

John liked to talk. He could talk to ear off a billy goat. Information was John's stock and trade. He thought he knew everything and could rattle off statistics from sun rise to sun down. You didn't want to get caught by him. Otherwise, you were stuck with him for the day.

The boss had a love/hate thing going with John. He stalked John around the store and hustled him into the work he was supposed to do. When John worked, he put his heart and soul into it. He mopped the floors and cleaned the bathrooms each morning before the store opened. He assisted the stockroom workers by pushing merchandise out to the sales floor. 

It wasn't that John didn't like to work; it was his method of accomplishing his tasks. John wasn't the sharpest tack in the bunch. What he lacked in brains, he made up for with enthusiasm. He dunked the mop into the toilets to wash down the walls and shoved his hand into the trash cans to make room for more trash. He never washed his hands, bathed infrequently, and smoked like a chimney. His scent preceded him. 

Freshly brewed coffee was available for the customers all day at the store. We had a nice seating area and served donuts on weekend mornings. Old men enjoyed coming in for the early breakfast, filling the seats. Women, on the other hand, liked to shop with their coffee. They walked around, spilling it on the clothing or floor and leaving their empty styrofoam cups everywhere. Often, we would find mannequins holding coffee cups or cups tucked away on shelves. 

One day, the boss asked John to clean the coffee pot. Eager to please the boss, he rushed to his task quickly. After a while, the coffee area was tidy, and a fresh pot was brewing. Anxious for the first cup, the boss hurried to pour one for himself. He quickly spit it out and summoned John immediately. 

Now, you have to understand that John cleaned everything with Pine Sol. He was the Pine Sol King. Instead of cleaning the coffee pot with vinegar and rinsing the system with water, John reached for his favorite product, cleaned the pot, and brewed fresh coffee. Poor John never understood what he did wrong. 

John decided he wanted to go on vacation. He had never been on a vacation and wanted to go on a cruise to Jamaica. He happily booked his cruise, met up with two guys on the ship, and toured Jamaica with them. On the last day, he went out with his friends, and when they returned to Miami, the customs officer found drugs on his two buddies. John got through all right, but--never one to not have the last word--he turned to the customs agent, lifted his shirt, stuck out his tongue, and said haha, you didn't find mine. John was arrested quickly, too.

He called the Boss, who immediately drove to Miami to bail John out. This was definitely the love part of that love/hate thing the boss had going with John. In all, John was arrested thrice during his employment, and the Boss stood bail for him each time.

John was eventually caught shoplifting. He was carrying merchandise out of the store beneath his shirt. He had a good job and earned good money but stole for the thrill of it. His employment was terminated quickly, and that was farewell to John.

John is a perfect character that will find his way into a book someday. He certainly had a lot going for him. Maybe not all the right things, but he made life entertaining for as long as he was around. No one had a better way of opening their mouth and inadvertently getting themselves into deep trouble than John did.