Tac always gave when asked. The Bible says, "Ask and you shall receive." Something Tac began paying attention to. Little did Tac know, however, the true importance of such an ethic. His friends surely did! They would ask, "Can you show me how to sign up?" or "Can I borrow fifty bucks?" Tac would sigh and give. It was a good ethic on their part. Tac wanted to be more like them. So he tried. He just one day got up and went to the local indoor flea market and asked an elderly Mexican gentleman, "do you mind if I leave some tools here to sell on consignment? I will give a ten percent cut."
"Sure," the vendor said.
"What? It worked!" Tac whispered to himself.
Tac went about his day in this sort of manner. He asked a woman standing outside what the time was right away. And in his mood, he told her that he was 'a happy man.' "I just got my products on consignment here."
She smiled and asked, "What's consignment?"
"It's when you put your product in another business's shelf for a cut."
"Interesting," the woman noted with a confused smile. Tac, in his charm, continued his day in perfect harmony.
Tac arrived at home, proceeded into his kitchen, and broke out a hunk of ham. He cut it into the types of shapes he wanted; specifically, like bacon strips. At this point, often his libido would push him to require some company, but not tonight! He's was going to read a book! He'd read blogs and search the web on his mobile, but this time he started on something more serious. Halfway through his reading of a book on King Arthur, he got the idea, "Maybe I don't read so often because I am not as logical as I would like to be." Tac opened up the browser on his computer and typed into Youtube, "Science and Math." Tac's eyes became like grapefruits, seeing, "Learn quantum physics in 3 hours!" Tac spent the next several hours coming to grips with a cat in a box and what a particle was.
Tac came to a point of no return. As if he was Einstein himself coming to conclusions about the universe. His life changed at that moment when he found that a light particle, a photon, can both exist and not exist! Dark matter was just photons, or light particles, that for some reason didn't exist! Tac told himself, "Growing up at the harbor all my life and these were the constituents of my reality…" Tac soon stumbled toward his bed nearby and fell face first in his pillow with ideas of numbers and concepts taking him to sleep.
"What is it with so many people in the city, so busy, and going, going, going? Maybe I just never got an essential nutrient of life," Tac pondered. "Some atomic element that is a fuel of life," he continued. "Maybe I'll try harder, and this time it will be better," he thought. "And just go," but then he thought, "It must be more than that, though!" He walked down to the local indoor flea market again and asked the vendor, "Did you happen to sell any of the products I put out? I can give 20% if needed to sell!"
The older, Mexican gentleman replied, "Ok, so how about just the screwdriver sets?"
Tac smiled, took the drill bits, multitools, and hammers, and walked out, feeling accomplished that moment.
"I did it!" he thought once more. Tac just went, but he began to also get the sense that the world wanted his involvement. The world liked him. Tac shot straight his opinion and didn't wait to establish his ideas. "I like those shoes." "I think you're better off without the hat!" "I want salad." Again he followed this pattern. It was a new streak for Tac to learn the ways of the world. The first formulations he naturally proceeded with were his own beliefs and ideas. "What really is this thing called life?" Tac began demanding as a young twenty four year old. "Maybe that is what is going on in this fast paced world in general! People are going to lend their hand and simply engage in community. That is how precious and dynamic life is!" Ask and you shall receive took on another meaning that day. When his friends asked to borrow money or to help with a project, now he saw that it was not often a small thing, nor an odd task they were pursuing.
He could see the sunset at the end of the road before the hill. It said, "Here we go. On we go to jet to what it is that makes us happy." He remembered the old times he had with Travis, Jack, Tysen, Devnel, Camron, Trent, and all the gang. He thought of them with his fresh outlook.
"We partied because it was what we wanted to do, and everyone loved participating! I was a tad bit more scholarly than the gang, and that's because that is how I benefited the world," he thought to himself. "The kids around us were in groups because that is how they were. Their straight to the point, no nonsense, human setting was to play basketball, or study, or dance," he continued on his streak. "Thus, it only makes sense that my heart rests at the harbor and the ocean. What have I been doing my whole life?" He added, "life used to be so easy; then it got so complicated, and now I'm right back where I started."
"Hey, what is up?" Tac asked his neighbor Charlie.
"Oh nothing. There's a gathering at my work tonight. Wanna come?"
"Sounds fun."
"Yeah, so it's at 330 Liverpool Road, across from Albertsons, downtown, if you wanna come," as he flipped through a map app on his phone.
"Shoot," Tac replied. They departed in a cheerful mood, with their sights set on some nightlife.
Tac arrived, getting off the express near Albertsons in downtown Brook Harbor. Charlie saw Tac from outside the gate and called him, "Over here, man!" He let Tac through, and continued, "Meet the crew. This is Tom, our chief programmer, and Michael, a leading designer at the firm."
"Please to meet you guys," Tac remarked in a just-off-the-street kind of way. They all grinned in silence, gripping their cups of beer. They seemed to have the same ideas that Charlie and Tac were having of fun, but without the fuel or patience.
"How to break this ice?" Tac wondered. Following his straight to the point attitude, he said, "Let's go talk to that group over there." Little did he know, the party was mostly all spoiled rich kids.
They all laughed and Michael blurted, "The company is trash with talking to chicks, man. They'll stamp us later for misconduct and hit us with a guilt trip."
"Oh," Tac thought. His idea of being an awesome straightshooter went right out the window there.
"But," Charlie responded, "there is a lounge upstairs we can check out."
They all agreed.
They made their way into the lounge and Tom began to talk to some girls in the corner as they asked for their orders.
The crew made it over to Tom, but suddenly Michael bursted out, "What the heck is going on my man, Tom?" in a mean and belligerent way. It looked as if Tom and Michael had some sort of conflict going on. Charlie and Tac continued to watch, and Tom responded, "nothing brother, just making up for all them girls we left behind."
Michael shot back, "Girls and the 970 report you darn wrecked last week because you're a lazy idiot, ha!" Tom grinned, but they shook hands; however, in a sort of speedy, squirrel like way. In Tac's mind, a fight was about to break out. But nothing.
Tac thought in the spur of the moment, as a new pop song started to play, "I seriously don't understand these people. Their environment is like this? Like how athletes are sometimes? Hmm, maybe it's not anyone's attitude except the attitude of their environment?" Tac continued in his thought, "And for me never being there," with his glass of beer raised.
Tac got home that night and decided it was time. It was the best night to go back to the harbor. His fresh ideas were making him feel the love for life again, and so he washed up, grabbed some food, threw on his backpack, and drove down to the harbor a few miles away.
"Aaahhh," he let out as he stepped out onto the harbor parking lot, remembering the atmosphere (although the lights now blueish). He made his way to the dock and sat on the rocks nearby, opened up his bag, and took out his Doritos and Vienna sausage can. He smiled big as the small waves crashed softly on the rocks. He ate two chips to honor his love for the sea.