All thanks to Azra Family Co. the outskirts of Station Ail and Wail, was packed with people of the town, as soon as the pair of husband and wife, opened their stall as early in the morning the entire town would start to move. The townspeople would leave their house and come to the stall, to buy any foods that were sold there, and in the last 2 days, the Azra Family Co. stall, has seen a change of customers as well. If before, those that were visiting the stall, were only those that have money to spare, these days, the poor and disheveled, those that were in the lower income also comes to the stall to get the chance, to finally dine on the stall delicious and clean foods.
"Hey, aren't you going to Azra Family Co. shop?". (Cheese)
"Sigh~ …. I've got no coins, man…. I still haven't found anyone that wanted to buy that busted Automaton…". (Ham)
Ham is just a normal everyday scavenger who instead of taking a mission to kill or escorting caravan. He is the kind of scavenger that went all over the wasteland and scavenge valuable items, to trade for coins. A few weeks ago, Ham managed to get his hands on a busted construction Automaton, knowing that these Automaton can be sell, he hauls it back home, but sadly, until now, no one wanted to buy them at all. So, right now instead of getting the massive financial break, he instead had kept his family hungry for some days.
"Oh, you still got that thing?". (Cheese)
"Yeah…for some unknown reason, no one wanted to buy them of my hand…for that, my wife and kids nagged at me every day.". (Ham)
"Damn, dude…. hey, just go to Azra Family Co. and go barter with them…". (Cheese)
"Barter? Boss Azra accept barter now?". (Ham)
"They just did, for the past 2 days …. they started to accept old stuff…you know, those shiny jewelry and shit…. oh! they also accept electronic stuff…". (Cheese)
"Really?". (Ham)
Ham who been consumed with happiness, due to the news that comes from his neighbors, felt a little bit at ease.
"Yeah …Dude, just give up on selling that busted Automaton for a high price, dude…no one are going to buy them here …. just go and barter that thing with Boss Azra and get the food for your family…be a good man for once…". (Cheese)
Cheese, being the man neighbors for so long, naturally knows what kind of a person Ham is, that smile and glint in his eyes, probably thinking about something on the borderline of greediness. Everyone in town that visited Azra Family Co. stall, already knew that the Barter Trade that the stall opened, is just a gesture of charity from the stall owner to the town. So, like a good neighbor, Cheese stamp that greediness out of Ham, just so this idiotic man wouldn't do anything stupid.
"…Sigh~ …. I guess you were right, Cheese…. alright, I will sell that thing…I need to be a good man for once, right?". (Ham)
"Good! Get that busted thing out here …I'll help you carry that thing to the stall…after all, I too got stuff here to trade there…me and my entire family already got hooked on their bread…". (Cheese)
Cheese shakes the plastic bags in his hand, gesturing to his slightly upset friend that he too wanted to buy something there. Ham goes inside of his house and then dragged the broken Automaton with him, so together the 2-man worked together carrying the broken thing to the famous Azra Family Co. Stall. The truth is, this kind of interaction is not at all a rare occurrence, a lot of poor folks in Station Ail and Wail, that comes to learn about the Barter Trade, all of them has had a new hope in their dimmed depressing life.
The fact that a respectable business willing to do such charity work, was like a godsend miracle to the towns people. And thanks to this new trend, Station Ail and Wail people slowly getting revived, every day, the town folks would venture out of the town, no longer wallowing in their sadness or lamenting the unfairness of their fates. For them as long as they get up, work hard on finding something to trade, they can eat and drink good food every day, and who doesn't want to miss such chance, no one. For once the town Station Ail and Wail, were looking not so bleak, and it is all thanks to the food and waters that Azra Family Co. provide.
Right outside the town, as always, Azra Family Co. Stall, naturally packed with customers. Also as usual, when 12PM strikes, the stall would stop for a break, and with the Azra Burgers at this kind of time had already sold out, the burden of managing the store was lighten a little bit. Alfred was busy arranging the pile of bartered items behind the truck, while me and Natasha were having our lunch inside of our truck. The outside is just burning hot at this hour, and inside our truck, we can cool off a little bit and we don't really have to worry about anyone prying in to our matter.
"We have traded about a 500kg of jewelries and over 2 tons of other stuff as well…do we really need that many? …Hmm~ this fried rice is good, Honey…". (Natasha)
Another thing aside from eating in an air conditioner truck, is that our lunch menu, that we ate every day, will always change, if we eat outside, there will always somebody that will come and asked us about what we were having, and explaining that every time, is just a hassle.
"500 Kg of Jewelry…. Hm …that's great…and, Nat…surprisingly for that sort of stuff…we would always be needing them…those many electronic that they trade to us…. all of them can be recycle and reused…some of them just need a little bit of repair and it was as good as new…".
All the golds and jewelry stuff, that is something that I can't get enough of, those things are money to me and I would always need them. But for the other stuff, most of them is just all the stuff that Alfred said that he can use them, and like I said, a lot of side stuff that the customer brought in, a lot of them were still in good condition, just need a little bit of repair. Also, a lot of the stuff that the customers brought many of them pique my hobbyist passion, there is one that comes in bringing a Still intact adult pin-up magazine, and I give him 1 Sourdough bread for it.
And since that incident, people would bring all sort of stuffs to me, an old poster, comics, magazines, a mint conditions superhero costume and figurines, bobble heads, vinyl records. Everything that comes from the old-world Pre-war era, I would trade them equally, when the other customers saw this, they question my sanity even more, but I just ignored them and said, I am just rewarding them for their hard work and I also said I loved this sort of things.
"Well…now that we don't have to worry about a lot of things…you can do as you like, Honey.". (Natasha)
"Thank you, Nat ….one day…I'm going to make a giant museum ...and I would just display my entire collections there…".
Well, a lot of stuff will be in my private collection and will be my family heirloom. Thinking about when the day would come, always made me smile.
"I do hope someone would come and bring us, the Doctor Bot or the Nurse Bot ….". (Natasha)
"…Yeah, I do to ….".
A day ago, I have told Natasha about my intention to correct my malform bone. At first, she is worried about it, after all the procedure involve breaking my leg again, but as Alfred explained in length about the process and what we need to make the procedure safe, she then agreed and supported me. But the problem is, until now, we have not found or even sees a glimpse of the 2 Automaton, which is a little bit disheartening.
"If no one comes to trade with us…we might have to venture out into the wasteland ourselves just to find it…".