Bradbury Collection

Garage Sale (Bradbury story 13)

(238 words)

A wealthy man and his wife arrived at a garage sale in a typical suburban area. There were multiple tables with goods spread out on them, and sheets on the ground with clothing folded neatly. The elderly woman running it had a jar where people could choose to pay whatever they wanted for the items that were for sale. There were some crumpled one dollar bills wadded up in the jar, along with some change.

The woman selected a book. Her husband got a wad of hundred dollar bills and shoved them in the jar.

“Why did you give them so much?” his wife asked.

“People try to cheat nice people like this, I decided to reward her. I’m the CEO at a successful company, so I can afford it.”

As the couple left to get in their car, the elderly woman pulls out a communication device.

“Call off the attack fleet, I have found a human who is worthy. Not all humans are evil, as we once thought.”

The omniscient narrator emerges and tosses a silver dollar into the jar.

“You’ve seen set-ups like this before, most of us have. A jar is set out, and the customer decides how much to pay. But try not to be cheap, one man saved the Earth from extra-terrestrial annihilation by giving a little extra. At least it happened that way once, at a garage sale in the Twilight Zone!”

The End