why does everything cost money?
He wont accept my bottle caps, he won't take my tokens and he stares at me from the other side of the counter as I rifle through my pockets looking for credits. All I want is a vial of the new SuperSpesh vape juice and this fool is in my way.
"I'm sorry kid it's 50 credits for the new stuff, no coupons, no bottle caps, no shiny pebbles. If you wanna experience this new flavour you gotta give me credits."
My pockets are mostly empty but I have some bottle caps and a matchstick. Eddie told me he heard this new vape flavour makes you remember dogs and I wanted to experience it, but I guess I'm shit out of luck
I look at the few bottle caps and the lone matchstick in my hand for a second before raising my offering up to the counter.
"What will this get me?" I ask with my arms outstretched, all my wealth in my palms.
"Hmmmm ok what have we got here... 3 bottle caps and a matchstick. Yeah I got something for you kid" the store man turns around for a second, grabbing a tiny vial from the wall behind him.
"Merry Christmas" he jeers, handing it to me whilst snatching away my life savings. I walk outside and sit on the curb, opening the vial and pouring it into my vape, getting excited about being able to experience something new and novel. Hell I might not be able to afford the cool dog stuff but whatever I have has to be better than nothing.
Once the viscus purple fluid is in my vape, I scoot back a little to rest against the side of the store, so I can fully lay out and enjoy this thing. I do a quick look around to make sure nobody is close in case they try to jump me whilst I'm geeked out but I think I'm fine, this will only take a moment. I breathe in and out a few times and then I take a long, slow drag of my vape with the juice the storekeep gave me. Pulling it into my lungs and holding it there until the memories appear.
And as I'm blowing out the purple smoke, Season_4_Episode_3_‘Death_Begins_at_Forty’ of Home Improvement plays through my mind as a 32MB, AVI file ripped from a VHS tape. An entire episode of Tim Allen tormenting his family and making ugh ugh ugh sounds which usually would take about 25 minutes but in my mind, in this smoke, it's condensed into a bullet of knowledge which shoots itself into my brain.
As the smoke dissipates in front of me and I feel my pockets empty of cash, I ask why do I do this to myself?