77 Digital Message in an Analog World

"For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been.'" — John Greenleaf Whittier, 1854

They had me and they knew it. Time to pay the piper. Time to pay Paul; Peter's robbery now irrelevant. My lesson: spend their money and don't pay them back--lose a finger. Or more.

I knew the risks when they offered me their money, interest compounded minutely (not in small, minute amounts, but in clock minutes).

When Shakespeare had weighed in with, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be," it was the first part I had a problem with.

But some things are too good to pass up. The tip I got was from the track vet, so I was encouraged by hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, who said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

It was a sure thing! A gimme. All I wanted to do was take my best shot. Then I could take my best shot with my lover. I had special plans for her. And that takes money. If only...

To paraphrase Robert Burns, "The best-bet shots of mice and men often go boxcars."

They gave me the courtesy of allowing me to choose which finger I felt was worth losing. It didn't take a lot of thought.

• I needed my thumb to hitchhike to my lover.
• My index finger I needed to please my lover.
• I needed my ring finger to solemnize my love for my lover.
• My pinky I needed to swear undying love to my lover.

Gagged so, I couldn't name which finger out loud. I could only show them. My gorilla released my hand and I raised it to display the middle finger, which I didn't need for my lover, but only needed to identify the sentiment I felt for my captors. I felt it was an important life statement to make.

It's wasn't brain surgery, so it hurt as much as I expected.

"The price is going up every day--we'll find you again tomorrow," he said.

"Wait!" announced the head gorilla. "Your girlfriend just got you all paid up. Looks like you lost your middle finger for nothin'."

Glad I had the other one.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Word count (excluding note): 366

Submitted for Sunday, March 17, 2024

2024: A Story-a-Day for the whole year. This one is #77.