8- Road Tripped (The Cassette Player)
Cassius swallowed. He guessed it was his turn. He made his way to the center of the room. "H-hi."
Cassius was gently lowered onto the passenger seat of Master's van. This could mean only one thing. Road Trip.
Master darted back inside his house. The phone was ringing.
"Did he find your stash of flyers yet?" The van asked.
Cassius shook his head. He hoped not. How else was he going to remember everywhere he went? One doesn't buy souvenirs for appliances.
"Okay, see you later on tonight." Master said. "Bye, Mom." He headed back to the van and pulled out of the driveway.
"So, where exactly are you from?" Wattson asked.
Cassius scratched his head (or the tape player version of it). "Somewhere in Oregon. Don't know the exact location though."
Cassius had a moment to look out the window once Master stopped for gas and a bite to eat. He opened the glove compartment and thumbed through his collection. Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Disney Land. He quickly shoved the fliers back in the glove compartment once he spotted Master coming out of the diner.
"Well, thirty more miles before I hit Light City." He pulled out of the parking lot and headed down the road.
"So, how did you get here?"
"I haven't gotten to that part yet," Cassius replied. "Be patient."
Cassius sat in the van, waiting for Master to finish unloading his luggage. It was taking a while, so he opened the door. Master was talking with a neighbor. He scurried away.
He hid behind a potted plant. Master strode over to the passenger seat. "Hey, where'd the tape player go?" His gaze darted to his other traveling companion: a basset hound. "Did you do it?"
The dog just stared at him.
Cassius breathed a sigh of relief, then attempted to get back to the car.
How was he supposed to get inside without arousing suspicion?
He pulled himself away from his hiding spot. Master put a leash on the dog and both of them walked up the steps to his parents' house.
Cassius darted to the neighbor's house.
"Hey, Martha," an old man's voice said. "What's this tape player doin' in our yard?" He dropped the hose he was using to water plants.
"I don't know, Harold, just throw it out." His wife replied.
Throw it out? Cassius had to get back to his master.
He scrambled onto the roadside, but fell face first onto the road. His buttons were damaged in the impact.
"Did he pick you up too?"
Cassius nodded.
Cassius woke up. No longer was he on the road outside his master's old house, but on a shelf somewhere. Three cassette tapes were tangled in his inner workings. He looked at the labels. "Hungarian Rhapsodies", "Great Horror Scores", "Sounds of the Sea". These weren't his master's. Master liked hard rock.
"Do you like it?" An eerie voice asked.
Cassius just made a series of whimpers. "What happened to me?"
"We repaired you," the voice replied. "Do you like what I've chosen for you?"
Cassius just narrowed his eyes. "Frankly, your music tastes are... weird."
The hanging lamp drifted downwards. "I chose which tapes would be part of you and Monsieur Cafetiere did the rest." He looked up at the cabinet. "Please, don't ask where I got the tapes."
Why I named them What I Did
Monsieur Cafetiere (Shortened to Cafe)- He's a little dramatic and needed a dramatic-sounding name.
