Billboard Sky

Chapter Five, Two Dollar Bill

Elizabeth giggled as Bill juggled three packages of Hostess Twinkies.

"If you drop 'em, you buy 'em, Bill," she laughed and Bill put two of the packages back on the display-shelf and placed the other one on the counter.

"I once was a juggler on Main Street in Cape Cod, during the summer festivals, did I ever tell you that? This one felt the lightest. I bet it tastes the best, too," Bill said and put a two dollar bill on the counter. Elizabeth picked it up and rubbed her fingers over it gently.

"Bill, this two dollars is worth about eight dollars right now. Why use it for a dollar and fifty cents purchase?"

"Eight dollars?" Bill said. "Well, I've got quite a few of these at home, figured I'd put some back in circulation."

"You should take them to a dealer, or sell them on ebay. I can put them up for you on my account," Elizabeth offered.

"Nah, let's just put them back into the money train," Bill winked. "Let them have an adventure."

"They won't stay in circulation long, though, Bill. A few customers a day come in and purchase odd coins and two dollar bills. Seriously."

Bill undid the wrapping from the Twinkie and popped it halfway into his mouth and bit through. Chewing, thinking, smiling as his eyebrows went up and down, up and down. The warm coffee color of his skin and the light green of his eyes soothed Elizabeth, as did his wrinkles, his many, many wrinkles, that seemed to be proof of Bill's willingness to laugh more than they were proof of his age.

"Ah heck, just ring it through, I'll make a currency collector's day," Bill finally said and then popped the other half of the Twinkie in his mouth.

"Fifty cents is your change," Elizabeth said and went to her pocketbook to get two one dollar bills. "I'm buying the two dollar bill," She said matter of factly.

"You're a collector?" Bill asked.

"Only of Bill's bills," Elizabeth said and smiled.

Bill laughed and put the other Twinkie into his mouth. "Have you ever heard of a band named Foreigner?" Bill asked.

"No, are they new?" Elizabeth asked.

"No, they are old, very old, some of the members are dead, even. But, a long time ago, my son bought me a CD, and I didn't even have a player for it. But I kept it. It was a nice gift."

"So you never listened to it, Bill?"

"Nope," Bill said and took it out of his pocket. "But it can be played on computers, I heard."

Elizabeth picked it up and put it into the computer behind the counter and shut off the nearby radio. "Let's check it out," she said as the first song began to play.

Girl On The Moon, Foreigner

It's night, again
Time for my mind to go wandering
Off on a journey, through space and time
In search of a face I can never find
So I close my eyes and look inside

I can't forget
The night that I saw her we never met
She felt so close to me as I reached for her hand
She drifted away like the desert sand
It was her and she was gone

I wish she'd come back tonight
Like a star shining bright
I don't know where she's from

She's like a girl on the moon
A girl on the moon
She's like a girl on the moon
A girl on the moon

Yeah it's night, once again
And that same old feeling is setting in
It all seems so familiar but I hope this time
That the girl on the moon will soon be mine
All mine, tonight

Am I asking too much
Should I leave my dream untouched
Should I even know where she's from

My, girl on the moon
She's my girl on the moon
Girl on the moon
My girl on the moon
Girl on the moon
My girl on the moon
Girl on the moon
Girl on the moon
Girl on the moon
Fille sur la lune
Girl on the moon
Fille sur la lune

As the song finished playing, Bill and Elizabeth just stared at each other. "Well, that was weird," Elizabeth said.

"My son had strange taste in music," Bill said. "He was what they called 'stuck in the 80s', and listened to a lot of rock and roll music."

"That was rock and roll?" Elizabeth asked and then looked at the back of the insert from the CD cover. "They don't look rock and roll. That song sounded gentle, not like the rock and roll I've seen on Mtv, and I never saw those guys on Mtv, not even on the music history shows they have on sometimes."

"Heck if I know," Bill said. "He told me it was a rock and roll band."

"The cd is stuck. It's not going to the next song. How old is this cd?" Elizabeth asked.

"About 50 years old," Bill replied.

Elizabeth pressed the 'next' button and more music began to play.

"I see what might be the problem," Elizabeth said, as the song Break It Up began to play. "The computer media player is on shuffle, maybe that's why it keeps stopping after each track, with it being an older cd format and all. I could take off shuffle and maybe...hey, this song is pretty good."

The keyboard sound intro got stronger and harder and then the first words, Made myself a prisoner, I locked myself away, seemed oddly out of place to hear in a convenience store full of bright lighting and various colors and shiny packaging. "He sounds very upset," Elizabeth said, and pressed 'copy to drive' on her media player and selected the song playing without hearing all of it.

"Breaking up is hard to do, doo doo dee dee," Bill said as he tapped his hands to the beat of the bass sound in the song coming from the computer speakers.

Why can't you wait one more minute?
Why can't you wait? give me one more day
Let's get it straight
This is a big mistake
We better think about it

Bill watched as a customer walked inside the store wearing a long black jacket. Elizabeth smiled and said hello, her usual greeting, as the customer made his way past the two of them towards the newspaper section.

And I ask myself, what's wrong with me? How could I be so blind? I know she tried to give me everything, but I still couldn't see. Now as I watch our love slip away, I'm begging you, begging you, please...

One dollar outta ten," Elizabeth said as the customer read the front page of his purchase. "Nine is your change."

"Hey, it looks like some other company is buying that space in the sky for April," the customer said to Bill, and showed Bill the left hand bottom corner of the paper.

"Which company? What will it say?" Elizabeth asked as the men skimmed the short blurb.

"What company is that? I've never heard of them, what do they sell?" Bill inquired to both the man with the newspaper and Elizabeth.

The man held the newspaper up to his chest with his finger under the name of the company, as Elizabeth read it and cocked her eyebrow.

"GoatSeed.com?" Elizabeth said out loud. "Sounds like that goatse.cx site that has that gross picture on it," Elizabeth shivered.

"Maybe it's a cloning company," Offered Bill.

"Or an herbal medicine site?" the man with the newspaper suggested.

"Let's find out," Elizabeth said, and clicked on the computer block, typed in the website address and as Foreigner's next track began to play, Elizabeth, Bill and the man with the newspaper all gasped in disbelief as the site came into view. The Foreigner track, I'm Gonna Win, seemed both appropriate and eerily disconcerting.

Another dark night, in the city
And my prospects lookin' thin
The survival, of the fittest
Is the law, in the world that I live in

"Oh my, well, I wasn't expecting that exactly," Elizabeth whispered.

"Neither was I," said Bill.

The man with the newspaper started laughing and walked out the door.

I'm gonna win
Somehow I know I'm gonna win
You know
I've got to fight to stay alive
Kick it in to overdrive
I'm gonna win, ooh, ooh, ooh
I'm gonna win

Posted by nft at May 24, 2004 11:04 PM