Billy and Susan

My name is Billy. I'm a beginner's Yo-Yo. Okay, I'm the cheapest Yo-Yo made by Duncan. I'm a red Imperial. I've been on this rack at Target for a year now.

I've got a little ridge of dust that has accumulated on the top of my packaging. It's unlikely I'll ever find a home looking like this and surrounded by all of my nicer looking, more cool cousins.

Seriously, who wants a plain red Yo-Yo when you can have a Metal Slider or a LED lit up Butterfly? Or even a new Counterweight? Don't even get me going on the De-Luxxe, Vintage or Specialty ones. They all put me to shame.

I'm the only red one in the group of us Imperials, which may be to my advantage but there are six of my siblings in front of me. Occasionally someone will look past all of them and touch my package for a second. It's hard not to get excited and the let down is terrible.

If you could hear us when someone comes down the toy isle. "Me. Pick me!" "Me, me, me, me, meeeeee." "Come on. One more package back, buddy. I'm blue. I light up." "Hey, hey. I glow in the dark." It's a sad chorus but a Yo-Yo's place is around a finger and in a warm human hand. Not stuck at Target!

I figure our days are numbered. Soon, we'll be packed in a box and sent back to our birthplace. Some of us may get lucky and make it to Big Lots. But the rest of us may be returned to live our lives out as warranty replacements. How many defective Red Imperial Duncan Yo-Yos have you ever seen? I've heard after so long, you're disassembled and ..... and melted down and made into packaging for our cousins. That comes from my blue brother, Larry, so I'm not sure whether to believe him.

Oh, no. It's happening. Just like I thought it would. The Target employees pulled all the Butterflies and then all the Imperials off the rack. One consolation is the hands. They caressed us by cleaning off the dust. The hands were so close. Just a thin piece of packaging away.

But the comfort is short lived, as they tossed us carelessly in a shopping cart. Brad made a run for it when they over shot the cart and his package came open. He screamed "I'm free" all the way to sporting goods, before they caught him and put him back in his package. He hasn't spoken since, poor guy.

The speculation was deafening. Everyone talked at once, except for Brad, as the cart was pushed through the store. The talking ceased as we stopped just shy of the point of retail freedom. All I could see and hear was a refrigerated Coca Cola case. "Have a Coke and a smile." "Have a Coke and a smile."

Susan had been at Target for two years and she often spoke of the day a good sum of Duncan's Imperials and Butterflies disappeared. She was in the wrong rack and was missed. Marvin was left behind at the cashier's stand one day and saw the missing Yo-Yos hanging in the 'impulse buy area'. We had heard the employees talk of this area where doodads that you need or think you need are displayed next to the candy and noisy soda pop.

Two of us were unceremoniously placed on a rack with a clearance tag and cost of 99 cents affixed to the end of it. We were slowly broken into twenty separate groups in the checkout lanes.

"99 cents? Is that all I'm worth?" cried Susan from behind me.

"We were only $2.99 to start with," I said. "Maybe this will help us find good hands."

Susan continued to cry.

Several times over the next week when I heard "Get the red one" I was devastated when they meant a cigarette lighter, a tube of Chapstick and a pack of gum. Not me. Not the 99 cent Duncan Yo-Yo.

I tried my best not to listen to the checkout conversations. I found a mantra to sooth my sad soul. I joined in with "Have a Coke and a smile."

I was pulled back to reality when a man slid me of the rack and handed me to a young boy. Susan came off next and went to a young girl. We were so close.

I could feel the warmth of his hands through my package.

"Billy, Susan, hand your Yo-Yos to the cashier so we can get out of here," said the man.

"Their names are Billy and Susan. We've found a home," I cried as my UPC was scanned.

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Writer's Cramp Prompt 6/7 11am
June 6 is National Yo-Yo Day! In honor of this auspicious occasion, write a STORY or POEM about a Yo-Yo. The catch? There is always a catch. Wink You must write FROM the POV (point of view) of the yo-yo. Have fun!