500 v. 0.1

It was a dark and stormy night. Ok, that’s mostly a lie in that it was 3:00 in the afternoon and the sun was shining, but dark and stormy is how Frank’s mood currently was. He was strolling down the street on this Tuesday, or was it Wednesday? Have you ever noticed how Tuesday and Wednesday feel exactly the same? There’s not really a distinction between the two, aside from name. Anyway, he was walking down the street contemplating his future. He had just learned, via a friend in the mayor’s office, that his town, Guernsey, North Dakota, was getting a Big Ticket Electronics store. On any given day, this would probably be great news to a twenty-something single male, living on the edge of civilization in a college town in the Upper Midwest, but this news troubled Frank.





You see, Frank owned the only electronics store currently in Guernsey. Having been a drop out from Guernsey State Agricultural and Technical School, he purchased an abandoned store in the old downtown area on the cheap, fixed it up, and started importing computers, televisions, video games, and other various electronics into the community. Business was thriving, and he had made a name for himself as a reputable business man.



But Guernsey was like most developing communities fighting for survival on the prairie. They wanted to develop commerce. The wanted to build a mall and commercial complex that would attract potential businesses to lay roots in the community, convinced that the town had something to offer their employees outside of work. And to do that, the Guernsey City Council felt that they needed to bring in a faceless global corporation like Big Ticket Electronics.



Of course, this was great for the rest of the community. In fact, Frank may be the only person in the entire town that would be negatively affected by the expansion. But as such, Frank found himself in a sullen mood.



Shuffling down the sidewalk, he kicked a rock along the way to his apartment that was 6 blocks away from the store. As he kicked the rock, it caught the crack between to slabs of sidewalk, kicked up in the air, and cracked the tail light of a Lexus that was parked on the street, setting of it’s alarm.


“Crap,” Frank thought to himself.



A person, who appeared to be the owner of the vehicle, perked up at the sound of the alarm and dashed out of the barber shop where he had been waiting. The gentleman looked at the tail light, and with the alarm still sounding, looked at Frank. After a few awkward moments he finally reached for his keys, opened the car, and shut off the alarm. He proceeded to look back at Frank, as if expecting an explanation.



“Double crap,” Frank thought to himself.



“What did you say?” the man said in a stern voice. Frank had a bad habit of muttering what he was thinking.



“I said, ‘Double Crap,’” Frank replied timidly.