New York City, a leading global city; New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment. Cubone was just a water droplet in the Ocean as he went about doing his daily routines. Unfortunately, Cubone could not make the grades needed to go unto College; his parents blamed this on the long hours he spent on his computer, and the constant cartoons he would watch. Cubone didn’t object, he knew what they were saying was indeed true, however, he believed this was worth it; in fact Cubone had seen every English dubbed cartoon and through his art, he was able to bring to life some of them and share them through online Communities.
Years went by, Cubone was now 22, and was struggling to support himself financially; the time he saved up each day for anime grew shorter and shorter. Things however took a turn for the better as Cubone had landed a job at his favorite Bookstore, “The Book Smith”. Although the pay wasn’t great, he was allowed to read some of their comics free of charge! He took advantage of this and he started feeling much more positive about himself. The store owner, “Vapen” was in his late 60s, had a lean body and his eyes had become greyer with age; curls of white hair sprouted from his hair as time moved and because of this, he would wear a black top hat completing his image of someone straight out of the 20s. He had worked on his own until he decided that he wasn’t fit enough to carry out his day to day tasks, therefore needing an assistant to help him with tasks. Despite Cubone having only worked at the store for just little over a year, him and Vapen had formed a father son bond; maybe this was because Cubone had an actual interest in what the bookstore sold.
Cubone woke up to the blaring sound of his Neighbor’s alarm clock, he took a shower and quickly got dressed up, and he was late. Cubone hadn’t learnt to drive yet, however, he was saving up money so that he could one day take lessons; for now he had to get put up with the bus. He quickly paid his fare and took a seat at the front. Cubone constantly peeked at his watch, Vapen was an impatient man and therefore he didn’t like being behind schedule. Unfortunately for him, Cubone was his only worker, and therefore the responsibilities on Cubone’s shoulders were great. He got off the bus on the street adjacent to the Book Smith. The shop was located on the middle of a highly used street and therefore it received a lot of visibility; a lot of the visitors were mainly students, some of them were deeply into the “Naruto” manga, each week a new chapter would be released and The Book Smith was one of the first few to acquire copies. However, Business was bad now since the rising popularity of the Internet meant that people could get the chapters for free; this was bad news for Vapen.
Cubone entered the shop, quietly as possible and locked the door behind him. Vapen would leave the door open for Cubone and he in turn would close and then open once it was opening time. Cubone made for the till and put his bag behind the counter, and started making preparations, Cubone turned around to see the old man staring at him, his eyes burning into his skin. “What have told you about being late, boy?” His old voice creaked, Cubone not knowing what to say blurted out “it was the bus sir, you know how incompetent it is”, “then it’s time you get a car young man, are you always going to rely on others for the rest of your life?” said Vapen, “No sir”, Cubone could see that Vapen’s expression’s softened. Today was meant to be a special day; something the old man had been looking for had arrived. “Bring over the box into my basement, boy”, Cubone did as he was told, he was surprised however, how light the box was, for something needing that kind of packaging, Cubone would have expected a bit more to be inside it; what could the old man be up to Cubone wondered as he headed towards the basement.
No comments:
Post a Comment