A SHORT STORY ... by Warren Gates
Johnny Long woke up that day sweating ... he had been dreaming ... and in his dream, the Queen of Ace sold to him, for 750 Million caboodles, a caboodle-making machine ... Poor Johnny, he bought it hook, line and sinker ... Well, he thought, it should more than make up for the 750 Million ... But to his dismay, he didn't read the fine print ...
Written in teeny, weeny fonts was the warning: CABOODLE-MAKING MACHINE HAS LIFESPAN OF 3 YEARS ... GOES INTO 95-YEAR SLUMBER UPON EXPIRATION ... TO MAKE 5 CABOODLES, MUST BE FED WITH 4 CABOODLES
Doing some quick math, Johnny calculated that just to get back his 750 Million caboodle, the machine has to make 5 X 750 million or 3.75 billion caboodles within 3 years ...
Johnny hurriedly dressed up for work, and at the subway, he met a couple of friends ... and to their surprise, the 3 of them had the same dream ... Paul Longfellow, one of his friends, had a different warning though on his machine: THE LIFESPAN WAS JUST 2 YEARS AND 6 MONTHS, AND HE HAD TO FEED IT 5 CABOODLES TO MAKE 6. At that rate, he needed 6 X 750 Million or 4.5 Billion Caboodles made to break even ...
George Hopalong, the other friend, had a bigger problem: HIS MACHINE EXPIRES IN 2 YEARS AND NEEDED 6 CABOODLES TO MAKE 7 ... which figures to 7 X 750 million caboodles or 5.25 Billion caboodles to be made within 2 years ...
It was getting stranger and stranger ... upon arriving at work he told his officemate Simon Longshot the tale ... SIMON STARTED LAUGHING ... HE COULDN'T BELIEVE IT !!!
'You know', Simon said, 'I have the same dream, and in my dream, my machine EXPIRES IN 1 YEAR AND 6 MONTHS, and I HAVE TO FEED IT 9 CABOODLES TO MAKE 10 ... SO I BARGAINED ... '
Since the machine had to make 10 X 750 million or 7.5 billion caboodles just for Simon to break even within 18 months, he asked the Queen of Ace for a guarantee ... The Queen of Ace politely replied 'DISCLAIMER: Blah, blah, blah ... but for another 750 million caboodles, I'll give you this exclusive, unique, patented time machine that will take you and your caboodle-machine to the year 2096 !!!'
END OF SHORT STORY
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