Frenzy Fable
Music Mishap and a Perplexing Purchase
I was riding down my street on a Saturday afternoon like any other. It was a beautiful day in Florida, and like usual I was on my bike. As I peddled the familiar streets of my neighborhood, the headphones in my ears played Clocks by Coldplay. I turned onto the sidewalk, and as I did so my bike hit the curb. That force knocked my old CD player out of my pocket and it crashed on the pavement.
I know, I know. Who has a CD player anymore? Well let me tell you, looking back at how significant that one moment was and what it has lead to now, I am glad my father never gave me an i-pod.
"Aw man." I said picking up the shattered pieces of one of my oldest possessions. Thank whatever religious deity you prefer that the CD was somehow unscathed! Seeing nothing else for it, I scooped up the broken pieces and CD and put them in my pocket.
As I continued my ride some strange miracle occurred, and I came across an old house having a yard sale. The picking there were already slim, but you never know what you might find in some old guy's junk, so I barked my bike had a look around.
I shifted through a couple of old magazines and comic books on a table when I felt my foot hit something. Looking down I saw a beaten up boom box sitting right underneath the table. I picked it up and pushed a few of the buttons to make sure they didn't stick.
"Excuse me sir," I said to the old man sitting in a lawn chair, "how much for the boom box?"
"Eh, what?" he asked.
I showed him the item in question. "How much?" I asked again.
"Bah, I don't have no dang music box." He replied. "Better were the days when we grooved to the sounds of records. Got dang kids with their new flibbin' techno do' hickies! What would I need one for?"
"So…I can take this then?" I asked holding the boom box aloft.
"What—no, not for free. If it's in the yard, it's for sale. 20 bucks."
"I'll give you 15."
"18. I got to make a living you know."
"Deal." I said giving the old man half of what I had in my wallet.
I put the boom box in the basket in from of my bike and began the ride home, chuckling to myself at my good fortune. So content was I in this wave of karma that I didn't notice the ever so quiet mumbling that came from the music playing machine.