I was eighteen years old. Jobless, homeless, alone.
It had been five, six, or seven days ago since I had last eaten a decent meal which mainly consists of an unfinished McDonald's hamburger and a few strands of meat from a chicken wing that I found in a trash bin. I wanted to share with you how I had come to this but I was too famished to tell you the story of my life before hunger.
My growling stomach was far from being tamed. I had been traversing every street in search of a promising bin but the hours spent walking on the numbing pavement yielded nothing but sores on my bare feet. I staggered to a dimly lit alley and managed to position myself on the doorsteps of a ramshackle apartment that was abandoned ever since I was a child. I closed my eyes and was ready to succumb to starvation when I heard a faint clicking of a light switch nearby.
Hunger must have obscured my senses for I had not noticed the small shop across my spot earlier. The windows were tinted so I could not see what's inside but the silhouette of a man against an incandescent backdrop meant that it was still open for business. The shop displayed no name yet there was a single ad by its door sign that caught my eye right away.
Want food? Inquire inside.
I mustered all my remaining strength,shuffled to the door and went in. The shop seemed too narrow because tall empty wooden shelves occupied most of the floor area that only one customer could fit in at a single time. It was strange enough to find an empty store but I was only thinking about one thing that time.
Food...
"Well, hello there, son. You seemed to have come to the right place," an old man beamed at me from the counter. He opened a drawer and reached for something that made my mouth water --- a whole family size pizza. He opened the box before me like a young man would when proposing to his lover and gently took out a slice.
"Do you want these?"
I nodded.
"Lucky you. These are for sale."
"But I do not have money." My stomach was screaming at me to just take it and run. He's a very old man after all.
"Oh that won't be a problem. You can offer me anything you have in exchange for your dinner."
"I don't have anything right now."
"Oh, but you do. We all do." He opened a dusty book lying beside the telephone in front of me. It was a record of some sort. The first column listed names. The second one listed items such as burger, handbag, sports car, and house. The third one listed numbers and next to a number was a single letter. The last entry in the record was for a certain Thomas Keep, private jet, 20y.
"You can get this box of pizza in exchange for four hours of your life." The old man handed me a pen. "Simply jot down your name, 'pizza' and '4h' in this record book."
It sounded absurd but the idea of not paying for food with cash was very welcoming especially now that I could smell the inviting aroma of freshly baked dough, cheese, tomato and sausages. I took the pen from him and scribbled down everything that he had said.
The old man chuckled as I grabbed the box and devoured slice after slice like there's no tomorrow. He left me for a minute as I finish the remaining pizza and returned with a glass of water.
"Here. This is for free." He smiled sympathetically. "If you need something else please don't hesitate to come back."
I grinned at him, waved my thanks and left the shop full and satisfied.
For the next few days, the shop became the source of my needs and wants. The shop owner seemed to have everything from the latest gadget to the most exotic dishes. There were a few instances that I felt like I was cheating the old man because I wasn't paying real cash but the lure of buying something when you have nothing and getting away with it was too tempting to ignore. From basic necessities such as food, water, and clothing, I began to make more luxurious purchases. I began bartering for stuff in exchange for a few hours, days, weeks, months and eventually years of my life. I bought a cellphone for 2 years, a sports car for 10 years, a house and lot for 15 years, a number of electronic appliances for 1 year each, and a yacht for 10 years. I sold some of my stuff to earn some cash since the shop owner refused to trade money for my time. This is not a foreign exchange establishment, he would say slightly amused. My earnings from the stuff I sold was mostly spent on booze, drugs, women and night clubbing. At eighteen years old, I was having the time of my life.
I didn't know how much of my years I had actually bartered because I would just drop by the shop and sign the book without glancing at my previous records. It did not bother me at all since I was gaining more than I was losing... until one fateful day...
I woke up feeling energized after deciding to get my own helicopter the night before. This would be my winning move to get a girl I fancy at the club who's been dodging me for weeks. The thought of her lying naked in my bed excited me. I was imagining her to be sleeping on the other side when I noticed some yellowish and decaying teeth in between the pillows. There's no way those came from me! I rushed towards the bathroom to examine myself in the mirror. What I saw horrified me. There was an old man in my reflection. He only had a few teeth. His hair was white and thinning. His eyes were sunken and his face was bony almost skeleton-like. He had age spots all over his frail and wrinkled body. I tried to run out of the house not caring if I was still in a bath robe but I couldn't find the energy to do so.
When I finally reached the shop, I was sweaty and breathless and was an ideal candidate for a heart attack anytime. The once empty shelves were filled with trinkets, figurines and miniature versions of things. There was a die-cast model of a sports car who looked oddly similar to my own.
"How can I help you sir?" A young man in his early twenties spoke to me from behind the counter.
"I'm looking for the shop owner."
"That would be me sir." He smiled in a way that reminded me of the old man.
In an ordinary day, I would have smiled back but this was no ordinary day. Confused and angered, I grabbed him by the collar with my shaking hands. "Don't f*cking mess with me! Where is he? Show him to me! Show him to me!"
"But, THIS IS ME." He looked straight into my eyes like an honest man would. I scanned him from head to foot. He wore the same clothes as the shop owner. He also had the same height as him. Although there was a difference in age, his face had remarkably the same features as the old man. There was no mistaking that they are one and the same person and by some black magic he had become young again.
"What did you do to me?"
"I just gave you what you asked for. I sold you your desires in exchange for some years of your life."
"I did not agree to this!"
"You did." He raised the record book to my face. "It's all in here. A total of 50 years. I think you held the highest record so far. I only bartered 40 years."
I dropped down to my knees and sobbed. "Please, please give back what you took."
"I cannot do that. It's the law of time. You cannot bring back what you have already spent. May I also reiterate that I did not take it from you. You willingly exchanged it for your worldly pleasures. There is one way though but it will take time." He grinned at the irony of his words. "You can be the shopkeeper."
He beckoned me to go behind the counter with him. He removed his jacket and wrapped me with it as I was only wearing a bathrobe. "Find someone who's willing to spend his time accumulating material things. The bigger the amount of time he barters, the younger you will get. Convince him to regularly trade with you. He would only notice how much time he had wasted when he's already too weak and frail." He patted me at the back and gave me one look of pity before walking towards the store entrance.
"What if I don't find anyone like me?" I asked.
"Don't worry. There's a lot of people like us who carelessly spend time as if it's an abundant resource. Just be patient and best of luck dear friend! Don't die of old age yet." He gave me a wink before vanishing through the door.
I sat down on the chair in utter defeat. I had no choice but to patiently wait for the right person to come at the right time.