"um... " Andrew sputtered. He stopped talking, and there was a long pause. Andrew didn’t know what the man was talking about, he thought he might be nuts.
"Well!" said the old man quickly. "I have someting yoo could use" he smiled mischievously. "in china dis was made" He walked quickly towards the back of the store to the shelves in the back. He turned sharply once he reached the end of the aisle and went to his left.
Out of curiousity Andrew followed. The old man saw this and called out to the boy "come come"... Andrew did just that. The stuff on the shelves here seemed even more bizare than before, the bottles more oddly shaped and older looking. Dust had long ago settled on the containers.
"dis is America man ointment" he said with the same mischevious smile. "eese call dat because it make you American man.... eese joke in China."
"try it, it feel good"
"um... uh..."
"you no like? you will like it feel, try it!" he said smiling. the old man dusted off the container with his hand, sending a plume of dust into the air and then handed Andrew the old container.
"fo free, i tell you, free, i have much moh"
Andrew confused still looked down at this "American Man" substance. How strange, he thought.
"you will notice difference soon after use...put it here, feels good" pointing to the back of his neck...
Andrew said thank you, walked back to the counter with the old man.
"thank you" Andrew said in a forced manner. 'so strange' he thought to himself. "bye, come back sometime" shouted the old man as Andrew walked out of the store with the old container in hand.
Andrew took again to walking around china town but found himself somewhat bored by the familiar scene, he was curious to know what the old man had meant and wanted to go home to try this stuff out.
Andrew walked back to his dad's work, got into his car and drove cautiously home. luckily the traffic was light and he was home in 15 minutes. His parents weren't home. His mom on a business trip for the week and she had brought Andrew's little brother along... his dad was working late again.
Andrew sighed and laid down on the couch. He turned on the TV and set the container next to him.
A few minutes passed and he felt the desire, once again, to see how the stuff might feel....