2 Jimmy

Chapter two of the short story for my ICP school project. Chapter is short.

JIMMY

 

Jimmy nearly chokes on his donut when he sees it pop up on the screen. He reaches for his can of beer, gulping down the best of half of it in one swift motion. He leaps off the couch and glues his eyes to the TV, focusing intently on the object in the middle, as if it were to all of a sudden disappear right then and there, right before his eyes. The colours of a ‘Limited Edition Seven-Of-Nine Poster’ light up the wall behind him.

   Must… get that… for… bathroom… wall…

   He can’t stop drooling. He closes his eyes and lets his imagination work one over on him. He loosens his grip on the can of beer and it’s sent falling to the ground. He starts to sway and then falls backward, smacking his head hard against the floor, bringing him back from his short lived fantasy. No man has ever drooled so much.

   Panting he declares: ‘I must… get… that…’

   Jimmy leaves the TV on, another re-run of Star Trek commencing and heads off into the kitchen. Posters are all over the hallway of characters from Star Trek. McCoy, Spock, Kirk, Scott. What’s interesting to note is that none of the ladies present in the show are there. He keeps all of them on his bathroom wall – including bit players. Not just the original series either! And what he does to the figures…

   He starts boiling the kettle, takes a deep breath, cracks his knuckles and then says aloud: ‘It’s eBay time!’

   Not far from the kitchen is Jimmy’s PC. He switches the speakers on, wakes the PC up from hibernation and brings the monitor back to life. Although having all the Star Trek games since Starfleet Academy in 1997 (he’s been collecting them for twenty odd years and hasn’t played a single one of them) the PC goes unused. But in the case of online shopping it gets its bang for its buck. He opens Winamp and promptly plays the already queued “Insensatez” – repeat on.

   Firefox opens, and he types in the search box: ‘star trek limited edition poster seven of nine’. BLAM! Only four results! Being an overly confident shopper Jimmy grins wide and clicks furiously on the one with the quickest auction end time – one minute.

   “Condition: New. Location: Melbourne, Victoria.” Not bad, considering he resides in Perth and his favourite method of payment is the good ol’ Bank Deposit Express. He puts in an offer that is roughly 300% more than the other bidders and heads off into the kitchen again.

   His mobile phone also mostly goes unused (who needs friends when you have posters?), although he has set it up for use with eBay. When he isn’t shopping it would gather dust on the breakfast counter, but when he is it serves as a quick method of notification. Just as he heads for the kettle (which is near boil) his message tone rings out and when he eyes the message he nearly screams with satisfaction. “ITEM SON#160242101672 won!”

   Rushing back over to his computer and pulling the desk drawer out he seizes his bank card. Refreshing the item page he then skims once over the payment methods and notices something he never has before. “Select UPCP and save the physically challenged – act now!* *select this in conjunction with any payment method”

   ‘I wonder what that stands for… Whatever. Seven-Of-Nine… come to me!’

   Entering his details and transferring money from his account to theirs Jimmy starts to drool again, and fast… No man has ever drooled so much…

 

Author's Note

Writing style and flow. Any other suggestions are welcome.