Tony stared at his friend in total disbelief.
“So, what your saying is, you bought a pan flute at a store called ‘Pete’s Pan Flute N Things’ which just so happens to have had its grand opening this morning, right as you passed by on your way home from work.”
“Yup,” said Bob. “Cool, huh?”
Bob began to blow on his newly acquired pan flute.
Toodlie, doodlie, doodlie-doo.
Tony winced as Bob kept blowing across the pipes of his new musical instrument.
“Seriously, dude. What the hell?” said Tony when Bob’s bad blowing of the pipes finally ended.
“Come on Tone, you know I’ve always wanted to be like Sam Fear, Master of the Pan Flute,” replied Bob. “And when I saw that store, I figured why not. Lots of guys like the flute.”
“It’s Zamphir, you frickin’ moron” said Tony as he cuffed his friend in the back of the head. “And no, I had no idea that your life long dream was to play the pan flute as well as a guy, whose name you don’t even know, to a room full of screaming grannies and their emasculated husbands.”
Bob ignored his friend’s tirade and piped his way into his room. He practiced blowing his new pipes throughout the night finally falling asleep around 4:00 in the morning. Tony on the other hand was unable to fall asleep. He crept into Bob’s room and found his friend sound asleep, grinning ear to ear and clutching his damned pan flute. Tony was able to carefully pry the cursed musical instrument from Bobby’s clutches. His plan was simple, return the flute and tell Bob something stupid like space monkeys had broken into the apartment and stolen it. Bob would be pissed, but he’d get over it.
Tony returned several hours later, flute in hand and confronted his friend.
“Uh, hey Bob, I thought you said you bought your flute at ‘Pete’s Pan Flute N Things.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Why?”
“Well, when I went there, there was just a store called ‘Ronnie’s Roommate Finders’”
“What are you talking about?”
“The store were you bought this stupid flute doesn’t exist.”
“No, I mean why were you trying to find ‘Pete’s Pan Flute N Things’?”
“Doesn’t matter, the point is the place doesn’t exist.”
“That’s crap. Come on, I needed to stop there to pick up some pan flute music books and a swanky new carrying case anyway.”
They pulled up to the storefront and watched in disbelief as the sign that said ‘Ronnie’s Roommate Finders’ erased itself and became a blank piece of wood.
“I say we go in there and see what the hell is going on here,” said Bob.
“Word up,” said Tony as he did his best to get into a B-boy stance. It was Bob’s turn to do some cuffing.
They walked inside and approached the counter. The store was empty except for a small bell and a sign that said “Ring me”. Tony rang the bell and they waited for someone to appear.
“Can I help you?” said a creepy old man. He looked very cliché.
“What is this place?” asked Tony
“Well,” said the old man, “It’s whatever you want it to be.” He pointed to Bob. “You desperately wanted to play the pan flute, so it became a pan flute store, and you,” he pointed to Tony, “wanted a new roommate, so it became a roommate locating service.”
“Holy crap!” said Tony. He grabbed Bob by the arm. “Don’t you see what this means?!”
“Yes!” said Bob as he grabbed Tony’s other arm. “You want another damn roommate, but you ain’t getting my CD’s.”
“No you imbecile, we can finally get whatever we want.”
They were wearing mile wide smiles as they ran out of the store and across the street. They turned to face each other.
“OK, Tone, you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“I think so, Bob. Ready? ”
They both closed their eyes and began concentrating really hard on what they wanted. A few seconds later words began forming on the store’s sign. “Petunia’s Peanut Butter Sandwich Shoppe”
Bob laughed hysterically. Tony slapped him across the face.
“This is serious you dink, now stop screwing around.” Tony’s face was stern. “We have a shot at riches beyond our wildest dreams, or a bevy of hotties just waiting for us and you want to piss it away on fluffernutters?”
“OK, OK, for real this time. Ready? Go.”
The sign blanked out then began to rewrite itself again. “Nancy’s Nudes”. Tony noticed a small sign in the window that read: “1500 Gold Bars Free With Every Nude”. Directly underneath a faded sign read: “Buy one nude person get two free”. The two friends, giddy with anticipation, burst through the doors of the shop. This time the creepy old man was replaced with fifty completely naked men.
Tony closed his eyes and shook his head. As he opened his eyes he slowly turned to look at Bob.
“Seriously, Dude?”
Bob just smirked and arched an eyebrow.
“Fine,” said Tony. “But after this we’re going back out there and this time you better think ‘New roommate’. And I get the CD’s.”
Author’s Note: OK this one was a departure for me. The story was inspired by the prompt: On the way home from work your character stops into a music store and purchases an unusual musical instrument that they’ve always wanted to learn to learn to play. Why today? I hope you enjoy this little tale. Please leave me a comment and let me know.