"What'll you have." asks the bartender. He polishes a glass, his back to the ladies on the screen behind him. They wear limited dress."I'll take a cup of your strongest. Please." says the Man. He waves toward the screen above the bar. "How long does it go on?"
"Loops every fifteen minutes," says the Bartender. "The real ladies are in the other room, behind that red door. If you came to trade, you can't trade for that. You'll need real money."
They watch as the ladies slide down a pole, bodies twist, bare feet kick in the air.
"What are you looking for?" says the Bartender. "Our house brand isn't bad." He looks at the shoe box under the Man's arm. "Looks like you're here to trade."
"Yup. Money is so scarce. But, I found some good stuff."
The man puts the shoe box on the bar, and removes the lid.
"What's all this?" says the Bartender. "Cards? Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey?"
"Some are really cool."
"I don't know. These look pretty old. Only a few are in plastic."
The Bartender fishes through the box.
"NBA, circa 2015. Jeez, that's 75 years ago. Problem is, nobody much cares about anybody seven feet tall anymore when you got guys like Yangambi Zambia, and Malawi Mozambique, both over 10 feet tall. Bila Tserkva, she's 10 ft 3."
"I got about fifty, some in plastic. They're okay." The Man pulls one out.
"Wow, NFL. That takes me back. Exposure to the air ate these up, see. These are real brown."
"Damn, the air is so polluted."
"Where did you find these, anyway?"
"In a trash can, just before it was lit up. Look, here's a Kobe Bryant, and a LaBron James...Dwyane Wade."
"Dwyane who?" says the Bartender. "Doesn't matter. Okay look. Here's what I can do. I 'll give you $10,000 for the whole lot, okay? You got what, 50 cards. So, at $5,000 a drink, you get two."
"You can't go three?"
The Bartender stares down at the man, and shakes his head.
"House brand is what you'll get," he says. " AlgaeGrog. 110 proof."
The Bartender picks out fifteen plastic covered cards. "I'll just take these. You can keep the rest. This Kobe needs to be traded real soon. He's starting to show his age, and these others, too. Trade them before they become totally worthless."
"Thanks, my friend," says the Man.
"Everybody's looking for the new players," says the Bartender, "The 10 footers, and 800 lb linebackers, soccer players who do the hundred in less than 6 seconds. Nobody wants old anymore. The new. The exciting."
"So, thanks, my friend for the AlgaeGrog?"
He takes his two cups and walks over to a booth near the front door.
A real female opens the red door and walks through the bar. She waves at the Man.
He waves and says, "You wouldn't be interested in a trade?"
"Money my friend." she says. She walks over and looks into the shoe box. "Cards?"
"Sports cards?"
She picks through. "Cards can be valuable, but these? They're kinda old. I think some of these guys...Manny Ramirez...Teemu Selanni...Peyton Manning...I know, I have two brothers...These were valuable once, but not any more. Same ol', same ol' Right idea, but bring me some players that're hot and we'll talk." She touches his cheek. "A player we can all get excited about. You do that, Sweetheart, and I'll get you behind the red door."
"That's what I want." says the Man.
"Well," she says, as she smoothly moves back toward the red door. "Isn't that's what we all want?"
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Help comes from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality
Google/Images, Wikipedia/virtual...reality/
Topps.com
Thesorous.com, FreeSpellCheck
http://www.readabilityformulas.com
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