[With a string of yellow lights, and a light knock on the front door, our mysterious little store comes to life with a quick appearance of Mr. Illuminator himself, Albert Lamplight, who stands in the middle of the doorway with his hands clasped behind his back.]
“Welcome to a world of all things unique. I trust that you find the right item that illuminates you – but I often make suggestions. While wandering along these old shelves, I’ve learned one thing that’s most important. There’s always something that connects the dots.”
[Albert steps aside and waves his hand across his waist, gesturing entrance.]
“In fact, before you’re given full access to my needful things, you must consider the treasure of mine that, through my expertise of course, does in fact, connect those dots. For that, perhaps a treasure that comes with a little story? Do come.”
[At the end of one of the shelves is a rusty fishing net. Albert puts one of his hands on it.]
“One of the greatest fishermen that ever lived once visited this store – disheveled, defeated, with nothing but this fishing net in tow. As he placed the fishing net down on the table, the poor man spoke of his expedition to conquer a great beast. He spoke of its raw value to him and him alone, and how this net had managed to feed his family and friends. Out of the abundance of confidence that he received through his successes, he became motivated to sacrifice everything… for the big one.
[Albert scoffs in disbelief, shaking his head.]
“You see, this fisherman was far more prepared beyond a fishing net. He had other tools, other weapons, and other ways to presumably handle anything that encountered him. Yet, when he came to me – all he had was this fishing net to sell to me. Everything else was taken away from him before he even had time to react. Like some sort of malicious infection, any defense he expected to have against the big one proved futile until the entire ordeal amounted to nothing but a great failure.”
[Albert shrugs his shoulders and puts the fishing net back down.]
“At the impasse of your greatest failed hunt, what do you do now Luther? There comes a time where we feel like we’re too good not to take on the opportunity, and it strangles us like a virus until we put ourselves in the middle of it all – where we’re truly illuminated for what we are.”
“You hold onto that spear tight -“
“Just like the great fisherman held onto his fishing net – until you start to recognize less your achievements, and more of what you lost because of that tool – like he did. And once that happened, it was either what remained of his pride – or the net.”
“Something tells me… that you aren’t quite prepared to sacrifice that spear of yours.”
“Which begs the question – have you truly met the big one yet?”
[Albert extends his arms outward, welcoming our customer to start browsing.]
“Thus, for now, we will settle with the rest of your pride.”
“And as far as the spear is concerned afterwards, Illumination Antiques is always open for business!”