Copyright (c) 2017 James Miehoff, All Rights Reserved.
This work may not be published whether for fee or free without this copyright.
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This is one of a series of stories set in what I call Universe-J. Universe-J is very much like this universe with a few exceptions.
First the people tend to be a little more sexual and less hung up on sex that they are in our universe. This does not mean that monogamy is the exception. James and Heather were monogamous for a significant amount of time before they "accidentally" swapped partners.
Second the repercussions of unprotected sex are less severe than our universe. Not to say that STDs and unexpected pregnancies don't occur, just that they occur less frequently and in the case of STDs, a good shot of antibiotic will put you right again. HIV has yet to be introduced so STDs aren't a death sentence there.
Lastly, pedophilia and incest (which I will not be writing about) are virtually unknown. Children are to be protected and loved not abused. When they reach the age of consent, they can join in the adult games if they so desire, but there is no pressure on them to do so.
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The world would be a boring place if everybody is the same. But I do get a lot of strange looks when I tell people about my hobby. I collect and restore old arcade games. Yes, those 20 to 30 year old quarter suckers that lived in the arcades of the '80s and '90s. Sometimes to find them I have to drive pretty far.
This is the story of what happened on one of those road trips to save a part of our misbegotten past.
I found an old arcade operator who lived way out in the sticks. It was about a 4 hour drive each way. I was supposed to meet him early one Saturday morning, so I got up way before the crack of dawn and headed out to his place. As usual, I gave him a courtesy call when I was about an hour out. Nothing, he didn't answer. It went straight to voice mail. Crap. This day is starting to look like a bust.
About 15 minutes later my phone rang. Caller ID said it was Earl. The day is looking up.
Crap. His daughter, Sissy, tripped while they were looking at the games this morning and she hurt her arm. He was at the ER but they were almost ready to go. I asked if we should reschedule. He said no, that I had come all that way and he'd feel bad if we didn't go through with the meeting. He finished up by suggesting a little greasy spoon in town mostly on the way to his house to meet at for a quick lunch before we get started.
Crap. More time wasted. But that is part of the game. Some of these old operators can be pretty touchy. I agreed and continued on down the road.
I was just stretching my legs in front of the restaurant when I hear someone call my name.
"Are you James?" he said. I turned and saw an older gentleman headed my way with what looked to be one of the most gorgeous young women I have ever seen, with her arm in a sling.
"You must be Earl," I replied. "And this must be Sissy of the catastrophic accident."
Earl looked a little abashed when he said, "Yep. I'm sorry about missing our appointment this morning. Sissy was out in the barn with me when she tripped and landed on her arm.
"We could both thought it was broken so I ran her up to the hospital and got it looked at. She was lucky, it was just bruised.
"But come on. Let's grab some chow. Because of her arm we both missed breakfast and rummaging through those old games is pretty tough sledding on an empty stomach."
Over lunch we exchanged some small talk. Earl had operated six arcades in this and some nearby towns until the arcade crash in the mid to late eighties.
"It wasn't lack of business," he told me. "It was the damn PTA and that bitch Lettie that decided that arcades were unwholesome and got an ordinance passed that got them banned."
So he moved them all into his barn with the hope of overturning the ordinance. That never happened and now he was too old to start up again.
Along the way I also learned that his daughter was actually his granddaughter. He adopted her when his son and daughter-in-law and their son were killed in a car crash 15 years ago. She was 22 now and holds or held most of the beauty pageant crowns in the 6 surrounding counties.
"She really took after her mom, thank God. My son was smart, but not a looker," Earl said.
When he said that, Sissie leaned over and punched him lightly on his shoulder. Her shirt popped a few buttons and she almost suffered a wardrobe malfunction. Almost.
Crap. It just wasn't going to be my day.
I paid for lunch and we piled into our trucks and headed the rest of the way out to his farm. His house was right off the road, but the barn was about 1/2 mile down a pretty beat up dirt road. At first glance it looked pretty good. The roof looked to be in good shape and none of the boards on the side looked rotten or missing. Things might be looking up after all.
Earl unlocked the big lock on the front door and I helped him pull it open. Nothing flew out which was another good sign. I had brought some flashlights and passed one to Earl and one to Sissy.
"Wish I had one of these this morning," Sissy said wistfully.
Somehow she had changed out of that nice shirt she was wearing into a loose armless t-shirt. From the look of it, the bra went away as well.
We walked to the back of the barn and I noticed the games immediately. He had them neatly arranged in rows jammed under the hayloft.
"Are those tarps?" I asked.
"Yep," said Earl. "I always meant to reopen a couple of arcades so I took real good care of them, just in case."
Just then Sissy bent down to pick something up off the floor. When I turned, I caught her in the beam of my flashlight and confirmed my suspicions. She wasn't wearing a bra. Her breasts were awesome to behold from the side view. She caught me looking and her nipples started to poke out.
We spent a lot of time looking over the games we could see from the front and I climbed up and walked across the tops to see some of the ones towards the back. Earl had arranged them in rows of 25 or so and they were mostly 8 deep for a total of about 200 video games. There were also 10 pinball machines neatly folded up and standing on their backs. While I was looking, Earl was regaling us with tales of where he had gotten each game and how much money it had made and other arcade stories. You could tell he loved these games.
Sissy wasn't idle either. She would walk over and bend down or point something out with her flashlight tucked under her arm illuminating those tits. She also went over to where I was several times and pointed at something, almost causing one of her breasts to pop out. I think she was enjoying herself making me squirm trying to hide my hardon.
Finally I said, "OK. This is about all I can do for now. Let's go out in the light so I can read my notes and give you the good news and the bad news."
"Bad news?" said Sissy sounding concerned.
"Everybody watch your step," said Earl, "and we'll meet up by the trucks."
I took me a minute to get down off the games, so they were standing by my truck when I got there.
"So watcha think sonny?" asked Earl.
"Well, as I said inside," I began. "There is some good news and some bad news.
"The good news is that you look to have done an excellent job storing the games. That raises the value significantly.
"The bad news is that there is no way I can raise the kind of cash to buy all of them in one shot. And from past experience letting people in to buy a few at a time means that the rarest and most desirable games go first and you are left with a big pile of less desirable games that are much harder to sell."
"That was not what I was expecting to hear. Why don't we go back to the good news and start with how much they are worth and then work up to the big picture," said Earl.
"Ok," I said. "In a bulk buy you average the prices and then have to discount because it is going to take an 18 wheeler to haul that many games out. For a bulk buy, $200 apiece would be a good price. The pins would be about $1000 apiece. Since you have 10 pins, $10,000 for those and 200 video games would be," I paused making a mental calculation, "$40,000 for a total of $50,000."
I continued, rushing to get it all out before the bad news sunk in, "That's the good news for you. The bad news for me is that I just don't have that kind of cash.
"As I said, if you were going to sell the games a few at a time to collectors like me, there are a few rare titles in there that could go for as much as $1200-1500 apiece. Say 3 or 4 that I could see.
"Then there will be a dozen or so that will sell for $700-800, and probably seventy five or so will sell for $300-400 and the rest you will probably need to sell at $50-100 just to get them to move at all.
"And unless you get lucky and find a big buyer, you'll have people picking over the machines for the next couple of years. And I'm afraid you'll have to deal with a lot of dicks that will want to lowball you for everything."
"So what would it take for me to sell all these to you in one shot," said Earl.
I hesitated before finally saying, "The only honest way I can think of, since you put me on the spot, would be to have an exclusive deal where I buy what I can afford, take them home, clean them up, get them running and sell them, then use that money to come back out and buy more until we've gone through the whole lot. But that might take a couple years."
Earl looked like he was deep in thought for a minute then brought up his hand, spit in it and stuck it out towards me and said, "Deal!"
I was shocked as I looked at his hand.
Thinking fast, I said, "On two conditions Earl, first that we put this in writing in a contract."
Earl scowled and barked "Ain't my word good enough for you?" as he pulled back his hand.
"I don't have a problem with your word Earl," I said. "I'm not sure how to put this delicately so I'm just going to say it. This is going to take at least 2 years maybe 3 or 4 to go through all this stuff. And you aren't a spring chicken.
"I don't want Sissy getting screwed because one of your relatives decides to pick your bones and claims that there was no such deal because there is no contract. So I want her name and yours in writing in a solid contract to protect both of you and to protect me in case the worst happens."
"I guess that makes sense. Awlright, so what's your other condition?" Earl growled.