10- Encore Performance (Cassius)

Cassius shivered. Was it his turn on the table?

The workmen arrived and plucked him off the shelf. He was placed on the table.

"What a disaster!" Rodrigo remarked. Untangling the tape from around Cassius's insides was going to be hard. There was enough tape to fill three cassettes.

Next part, fixing Cassius's "Teeth". Rodrigo had to replace some of them. The buttons looked like they were seconds away from detaching.

Rodrigo fished a "Claudia Lopez" tape out of the drawer and inserted it into Cassius. Strange music (or strange to Cassius) filled the air. The tape was thankfully ejected.

"Another working appliance. Put it up for sale."

The workmen carried Cassius towards the storefront.

It was nearing the end of one of the workmen's shift. His wife and daughter had arrived at the shop. Mona, the man's daughter, browsed the shelf. Her fingers traced over the goods for sale, until she came across Cassius. "Dad, can I buy this?" she asked.

"Do you have the money?" he called.

"Yeah," she said. She picked up Cassius and carried him to the counter. She gave the cashier the money.

Cassius found himself sitting in the backseat, beside a box of cassette tapes. Mona had to stop at a gas station before returning to college.

Cassius struggled to look inside the box. Without his tape arms, it only tipped the box over.

Mona returned to the car. "Must be the wind." She set the box upright.

Fantine smiled. Sitting beside her on the desk was Cassius.

"How ya doin'? Did the repair guy treat you well?"

"Well, to be honest," Cassius replied. "I still need to get used to not having arms."

"You're gonna love it here!" Fantine gushed. "There's a bunch of other appliances that are nice. The humans are mostly gone."

Cassius shifted. Hope had left her novel on the desk. He shuddered.

"Oh, and our old tormentor already has a back-up career." Fantine began. She pointed at the tape recorder on the cover. "Such a flattering picture."

Cassius almost fell off the desk.

The next day's appliance gathering had a new member. Fantine and Cassius strode into the common room.

Kirby just glared at his four colleagues. Someone had to make sure no one breaks a button.

"Lampy! Radio! Over Here!" Fantine called out. "I found another survivor." She pointed at Cassius.

Lampy hopped in for a closer look. "You look... different."

"I'm... uh... trying to ... uh... get used to not having tape gunk up my insides." Cassius finally admitted. He looked around the room. "Uh, I'm sorry for scaring you a few weeks ago."

"The horrors of war do things to men's souls," Radio said, placing his antenna on Cassius's side. "But you saw the light at the end of the tunnel."

"What he said," Lampy replied. He hopped to Radio's side. "I didn't understand you." Radio didn't reply.

Chris received a call in her dorm room. It was her dad. Rob stood outside the door.

"Hey, dad. What?" Rob looked shocked. "Oh, that. We'll have to find a way to stay in business." She hung up soon afterwards.

She spotted Rob standing by the door. "My dad's shop is closing by the end of the week."

"But why? It's doing so well."

The appliances heard the conversation.

"Dad rents the space; he doesn't own it. And the bank just hiked up the rent."