Storylets

Edwin "Buddy" Philips, a marginal salesman of department store appliances, tossed the plastic bag from the Western Regional Appliance Sales Show on the passenger seat of his cream Mercury. Although no music was playing, Edwin rhythmically tapped the steering wheel with the tops of his palms and atonaly hummed the melody from a Monkees song, the Muzak version of which was playing in the lobby of the Radisson he had just left.

Edwin's day had gone well. His score of givaways from the Western Regional Sales Show netted him three frisbees, a foam rubber Maytag man head, two porcelin mugs, one plastic travel mug, countless cheap calenders, and--his personal favorite--a clear superball with a red LED light that starts blinking when bounced. Edwin kept all the crap he picked up on these trade shows, halfway convinced that some of it may be worth something someday to somebody. Maybe just for the historical record, you know. Anyway, a fellow conventioneer tipped him off that the local WonderChicken had started giving away the new Lego figurine with the Excite-O-Meal. Edwin had all four, but was waiting for the final Lego man, a pirate with a bandana, a wooden leg, a mug (labelled "Pepsi"), and a plastic chicken leg in one hand.

He excitedly revved his engine while waiting in the line twenty-odd cars deep for the drive-thru, hopeful that he wouldn't get another damn fourth-week Lego construction worker, and still tapping his hands against the steering wheel in time with the Monkees song, although the tune had faded from his immediate consciousness.

The line at the WonderChicken drive-thru inched along slowly, the beige sedan lurching forward in fits and starts in a vaguely threatening manner, its driver's eyes half-closed, Edwin daydreaming of the perfect space on his bookshelf back home for the giveaway pirate Lego man.