Excerpt: The Fabric Store

Colby vaguely wondered why there were so many sequins in the basket. He wondered how many sequins were in the store. And why the store would stock so many sequins in the first place. Who would use all those sequins? Obviously no one, the sequins were returned. Colby found himself pitying the sequins. They obviously weren’t popular. He kind of wanted someone to buy the sequins so they wouldn’t be stuck at the store anymore.

Colby dropped everything. He was sympathizing with sequins. Colby shook his head to clear his mind and cleared his throat. “Sequins do not have feelings,” he told himself, standing up. He heaved the basket up and started down the next aisle.

“Sequins do not have feelings,” Colby repeated to himself. He stopped, seeing something shining on the rack. He reached for the sequins but dropped them back in the basket when he realized that he was looking at a bunch of shiny, multicolored beads. He kept walking down the aisle until he found the sequins.

He found himself pitying the sequins again as he looked at the hook, already full of sequins. He looked down at the basket and the sequin packages sitting at the top, with no place to go. Where would he put them now? They wouldn’t fit on the hook. But he couldn’t leave them in the basket. He had to put them somewhere. He scanned the hooks around the hanging sequins. They were all full too.

Colby took a moment to remind himself again that sequins don’t have feelings. He dropped the sequins to the bottom of the rack, and decided not to care where he put them, because the sequins didn’t care where they were put. Because sequins did not have feelings.