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or read the transcript below:
LIFE, ACTUALLY
VENDING JOY IN THE HOPEFUL VILLAGE
“Are you still open?”
A petite customer, her even more petite daughter close behind, sticks her head into the bookstore.
“Uh, sure,” I say, each time I’m closing up and just one more shopper wishes to enter.
The customer hands me two one-dollar bills and says, “She just can’t wait to get some more eggs. Got any quarters?”
I dip into the cash drawer and count eight pieces of fake silver and hand them over.
The petites rush over to the old iron vending machine and begin feeding it a snack of coins.
The contraption is filled with plastic egg-sized eggs. Each egg is packed with tiny memories…figurines or toys or gewgaws or marbles or Cracker Jack prizes or shiny beads or you name it.
The mechanical gears turn as eggs begin popping out. The two customers sit on the shop floor till they have four eggs. They arise, open the enormous creaking door, exit while shouting goodnights. They are happy.
I proceed with the ritual of closing down the store, ready to secure it for a night’s quiet bliss.
Suddenly, the door opens a crack, the mom pokes her face in and jubilantly emotes: “We just found a five-dollar bill next to the ATM machine! Can we buy some more eggs?”
It’s like Christmas, this excitement over small fond memories encapsulated within plastic eggs.
“Yep!” I grin and begin opening the machine to retrieve five bucks worth of joy for these dreaming denizens.
I fetch a shopping bag for them, they once again leave happy and sated. They will later bring the empty eggs back for me to pack them once again with momentary thrills.
As I cruise through the shop, turning off lights, picking up wandering books, checking to see whether the universe is all in order and ready for a break from us humans, I smile to myself. I reflect.
It doesn’t take much to bring a bit of pleasure to strangers.
It just requires motivation and mood and a genuine desire to make what little difference is possible in this village of wildly varied beings
© 2020 A.D. by Jim Reed