Be Kind, Please Rewind

Nobody knows who I am or what I do. 

I’m a useless piece of junk. 

Emily’s the only one who ever loved me. 

These are the thoughts that whir through me rather than tapes.

I spend my days sitting on the shelf of this smelly pawn shop, hoping someone will give me a second chance, but no, why would they need me, if they don’t even have a VCR?

I wasn’t useless once. Not on Sundays. 

Because of the Fridays. Oh, Fridays. Pizza, game night, movie night, babysitters or family, you name it. I’ll always owe Blockbuster for that. Screw you, Netflix, and all you other mediocre streaming services. I’m not even bitter about DVD players anymore. But the internet changed everything.

I was so helpful once. I was what everyone needed but they never admitted they needed. I helped make the world a kinder place. I did! That’s what the stickers said. “Be kind, please rewind.” That was me! I brought convenience to those who didn’t have the patience to rewind their almost overdue movie rental in the VCR themselves. Especially if they had more than one movie. Hence me. I saved them money! And Emily, God love her, and all the other seven year olds in the 90s who needed a chore. “Mom, can I help you?” “Um…go rewind the movies, they’re due later today.” Experts praised my services, too. Movie shops even PREFERRED us to be used. We were less wear and tear on the tapes. When you only have one function, you do it well, you know what I mean?

Ding!

A family walks in and Cory the cashier stiffens; he doesn’t like kids. The liable little monsters have no place here. They break toys, get scratches on the game consoles and tvs, have even dropped some fancy fragile figurines. Emily’s mom used to collect Lladros. With no tapes left to rewind, my memories of that girl do instead. 

The mom whispers to Cory about some jewelry while the older boy molds into a bean bag, scrolling on his smartphone. Kids these days and their smartphones. The younger child, a girl, wanders the aisle taking all of us in, artifacts of the 80s and beyond. Hands held behind her back, she doesn’t touch but does stop when she sees me. 

“What’s this thing for?” she asks whoever will listen. “Can you play music on it?”

“Huh?” her brother looks up. “Nah, that’s an answering machine. Like, when people used to call you and leave a message.”

“Before cell phones?” 

“Hmm..” He was back to his phone again, mindlessly scrolling, hypnotized by the glowing screen. Airhead.

Seriously? AN ANSWERING MACHINE?? Kids these days. Now I want them to leave. Maybe not the girl. She’s eyeballed me more than anyone has in months. She’s still looking at me, head tilted a bit, making me a little nervous. I lift my shoulders, preparing myself, ready for anything.

When the mom comes back, seemingly disappointed and rubbing a finger on her left hand, she summons the kids.

“Wait, Mom, can I get this?” she asks. Cheeuh! She’s talking about ME!

The mom shakes her head. “We’re not getting anything today, babe. Let’s go.”

“Wait, I would totally use this!” 

“For what?” the brother scoffs. 

“I could throw it at your head!” The girl reaches forward and presses my eject button. Overly excited, I shoot open, my plastic top vibrating as dust flies around. Too harsh! I scold myself. 

“Hey, no kids in electronics!” Cory bellows. 

The mom reaches over and snaps me shut aggressively. She grabs her kids, flips off Cory and they split. Cory just rolls his eyes as he heads back to the office. And I’m still here. Out of breath, here I remain, certainly doomed for this pawn shop life. I slouch back on the shelf. How many chances will I have left?

Ding!

Two customers in 10 minutes? The shop is on a roll today! Oh wait, not a customer. A man walks in with a large box and he awkwardly approaches Cory. Good luck, Spaz. I tune out, freshly bummed about Emily. I mean, whoever that girl was. What could’ve been. Even if she had just used me as a bookend, or a paperweight. Heck, she could’ve stuck stickers and pens in me and I would be content. I want to be used again. Be needed. I could’ve even died happy if she did throw me at her blockhead brother. Going out in that way would’ve been ok. Anything is better than rotting in here. Cory doesn’t even appreciate me and the other electronics.

I refocus. Looks like the man had some luck after all. After some negotiations there’s a handshake and an exchange of cash. The seller leaves quickly, not even taking a glance at any of the choice items our shop has to offer. Seriously? We’ve got gadgets and gizmos aplenty! We’ve got television! And best of all, we have VHS tapes! Sadly no VCR to play them at the moment, but it’s not a lost cause, we do get them now and then! It’s just been a while. Shame on DVD players but especially shame on the internet. I can never forgive the internet. Ugh, I want to see what Cory is messing with before I start to spiral again.

At last he waddles to the shelf and clears the space next to me. Interesting. He goes back and retrieves his newest buy, but I can’t see since his back is turned. Whistling while he works, he finally comes back to the shelf with it. Whoa! He carefully sets the vintage Panasonic VHS camcorder next to me. I try not to wig out but my last neighbor was a talkboy voice recorder that barely talked. 

From ironic to ICONIC. Finally! To sit next to a creator! We have some functions in common and mutual friends. Oh, the nostalgia we could look back on together. We could go hand in hand, me and him, become someone’s new faves. A new Emily, a new Sunday. Who knows? We need a VCR for a perfect VHS trifecta and I'll be an added bonus. 

Of course here we are now, cocooning on this dusty shelf, just waiting for our next owner and their niche needs. But hope is restored after today. You never know what could happen.