The Igloo Garage Sale - It Isn't Just a Game

     “Carassa!” I shrieked, sprawled on the floor, holding my foot to massage.

     “What's the matter now, Mika?” she mumbled, her voice muffled by her pillow.

     I stood up unsteadily, holding onto the bedframe. I seized my own pillow and threw it at Carassa, hoping it would smash her head into teeny tiny little bits. I missed. “Get up, your Laziness,” I snorted, making a face. “I tripped and fell over.”

     “Well, duh,” she grumbled, pushing the pillow off of the bed before sitting up and rubbing at her eyes. “We live in an igloo, in case you haven't noticed. It's slippery.”

     “I didn't trip over the floor, Carassa!” I said exasperatedly as I leaned down to pick up the offending object. “I tripped over... a green umbrella. Another one. Why do we have so much junk in the first place?” I held out the umbrella at an arm's length, preparing to drop it to the floor when Carassa came up behind my elbow and nabbed it.

     “It's not junk.” She took the umbrella carefully over to a large, overflowing sack of various items and tossed it in. “Ugh,” she muttered, kneeling down to examine the sack. “It ripped. No wonder some stuff came out. We'll have to get a new one.”

     “Fine. You take it all to the garage. We'll start selling them once I get some breakfast.” My head almost split open as a huge yawn came out of my mouth. Better make that after some breakfast and a nap.

     Carassa rolled her eyes. “And you still call me lazy? Huh.” She gathered the fallen items in her arms and grasped the mouth of the sack between her elbow and side. “Lazy Mika,” she grumbled under her breath as she dragged the junk to the garage. Humph.

     I poked around the refrigerator (actually, it's just a box, since it's cold enough here that our food freezes without any help; we just keep our food in there so we don't lose it or trip over it or something) for some yogurt, frozen, obviously, and some snow toast. After I forked some over to Mika and ate, the two of us waddled over to the garage, where we held a garage sale just about every day.

     It didn't feel too cold, mostly because we were tough little Chias, but our thick coats helped, too. My own coat was a little heavy, with dusty-red colored fur around the edges of the hood. The jacket itself was a blue-tinted purple-y shade that I wore with blue snow boots. Carassa always wore a slightly khaki yellow coat, with green and white fur around the hood. This she wore along with her favorite potato-colored brown boots.

     Moments after my arrival at the garage, I dragged an old lawn chair to the counter where Carassa was arranging the junk and deciding on prices. Most of our items were a good bargain, in good condition, and the only downside was that any food we had was slightly frozen, but it was still edible. A light thumping noise caught my attention. Ah-ha! A customer, already! I put on my best Mika smile and said, “Good morning! Welcome to the Igloo Garage Sale. You may take your pick but please purchase only one item, so others may have a chance to buy something as well.” I lowered my voice so that the customer wouldn't be able to hear, “and if you refuse to cooperate it will lead to your ejection from the warehouse. Thank you.” Carassa shot me a dirty look.

     The customer, a red Uni nodded and finally pointed at 122 NP Yellow Chomby Plushie. She passed over the Neopoints and left. A few minutes later, many more customers came and bought something until there were only a few items left. Once, when I was helping out a jumpy Kougra, I heard Carassa say to someone, “Hey, give everybody else a chance to buy stuff! Come back in a couple of minutes!” She sure does stick to the one-item per purchase rule, doesn't she?

     And then, all of the items were gone.

     “Oops! - We just ran out of items. Mika - go up to the attic and fetch lots more down! They are going like crazy!” Carassa said, giving me a meaningful look.

     I pushed myself to my feet and walked over to the room beneath the attic, with Carassa at my heels. This room had been re-built after our sales had morphed into blooming success. Half of the attic floor had been removed and stairs had been put in, to allow attic access more easily. Carassa scrambled up the stairs and grabbed a deep purple bottle of Shoyru Morphing Potion. “Catch!” she called.

     I dashed over to stand beneath the falling object and when it fell neatly into my arms, Carassa had already flung down another object- a pink bag of flour or something. By the time I had ten objects in my hands I was getting tired and the next object that came down, a green and yellow umbrella, didn't make it to my arms.

     “Mikaaaa!” she groaned, shaking her head. “Don't run away from it! Catch it, silly.”

     “Sorry!” I called, leaning over to pick it up, but Carassa wouldn't wait; she tossed down another object- a coin.

     “Hurry up,” she demanded, pushing a piano over the edge. The giant ebony thing was just too much; I ran away from it deliberately this time and flinched at the sound of the crash.

     “I can't believe you, Mika.”

     “What, did you expect me to be able to catch a fast-falling very heavy piano?”

     “Yes! Of course I expected you to catch it. Not only was it a fast-falling and very heavy piano, but it was also an expensive piano!”

     “So what? My arms are worth more than a piano; what, did you want me to end up in the hospital?”

     “Did you want to end up making loans from the bank?”

     “Why are you answering my questions with questions?”

     “Why are you answering my questions with your questions?”

     “You did it first, didn't you?”

     “See, you did it again!”

     “Umm... excuse me?” a voice, toned down from behind the door, sounded. Carassa hurried over to open it. “Yes?” she asked with controlled politeness.

     “Well, um... I was wondering if you were going to restock.” The Mynci looked embarrassed, “You, um, did say that you restocked up to eight times an hour... and,” he took in a deep breath, “it's been half an hour.”

     Carassa's cheeks colored. “Of course. I apologize, and don't be too shy, it's all right. We were, I mean, Mika and I were working on it.” She smiled blandly, “Wait just a few moments, please.”

     The Mynci nodded and turned away, stomping through the snow over to the garage door. With a sigh, Carassa pushed the door closed with an audible click. “Well... I, we did say...” she mumbled, shifting her weight on her feet.

     I nodded. “Let's go.”

     Carassa smiled and took my hand, towing me along to the garage sale, sack of junk in hand. She arranged the items on the counter quickly, not bothering to pause when an item fell off. I followed after her, scribbling down prices and plucking up fallen objects from the ground.

     With her yellow hood tucked beneath her head, she pushed open the door, “Welcome, everyone!” she crooned, a grin on her face. I joined her, and we said at the same time, “Welcome to Carassa and Mika's Igloo Garage Sale!”

The End