You walk into the toy store, and are surprised to see so many old fashioned toys. Rubber balls, wooden
blocks, real wooden doll houses, porcelain headed dolls, real painted lead soldiers, kites hang from the
ceiling, a model train whistle blows as it rounds the miniature town in the store window, a row of old style
teddy bears, hobby horses, and mechanical tops greet you. An old fashioned brass bell tinkles as the door
opens. You look around. There's a doorway with a sign that reads, "More Toys" with an arrow.
You pull the list out of your pocket, and glance at it. You nephew wants a Bumble Bee Camaro Transformer.
The plastic new stuff must be in the back. You head for the doorway. As you pass through the doorway you
notice a pirate skull and cross bones on a cardboard sign with the note, "Forsake Ye Humanity, All Who Enter
Here!"
"I thought it was hope?" you remark to yourself.
"Oh, there's always hope. You know the indomitable human spirit and all," says a man in a striped shirt and
apron who appeared mysteriously behind you.
"Indeed? Do you have any Transformers?"
"Transformers? Things to make you change?"
"No my nephew wants one of those Camaros that change into the robot Transformer Bumble Bee," you explain.
"Oh," he says softly, "The young man's birthday? We shouldn't disappoint him. Let's see what we can do."
He puts his palm on my back and guides me through the perilous stacks of games, toys and boxes that fill the
shelves in the backroom from floor to ceiling. Nothing looks like it was made before 1950.
"A Robot Bumble Bee that becomes a car?" muttered the man as he guided me toward what looked like one of the
candystriped guardhouses out of Babes In Toyland. As I duck inside thinking it leads to yet another room, I
notice a crank on the side of the box. The old man is starting to crank it. I feel around the back of the
guardhouse for a door knob. It's all smooth wood at first, but it suddenly sparks as if it was electrical. I
smell oil, and my mouth tastes metallic. I turn around to exit, but there's no doorway behind me. Where is the
light coming from? I'm in a box, no door, no window, just crackling electricity.
I shout, "Let me out!"
"All in due time,"shouts the old man, "First, you need to be transformed.