Monday 17 June 2013

The Disappointment Shop


I walk into the disappointment shop.
Immediately, I am disappointed:
a man approaches me to ask if I
need help. “I’m disappointed,” I explain.
“I would have thought that in a shop like yours
the service would be non-existent, so
it’s rather disappointing that you offer
assistance.” Silently, he hands a card
to me. I read the words inside my head.
The items in this shop are not for sale
at any price. My days of petty theft
have long since passed into the realms of folklore,
so stealing’s not an option as I’d surely
be caught. The shop assistant walks towards
the door and turns the key inside the lock.
“I’m sorry, sir,” he says. “We’re shut.” I ask
if he could let me out. “You haven’t bought
it yet.” I puzzle over what he’s said;
I wonder what the ‘it’ he mentions is,
then see it. Knowing that it can’t be bought
(at any price) I ask if I could hold it.
The shop assistant hands it over to me
(he doesn’t know how clumsy I can be).
We watch it fall upon the ground and smash.

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