the donation box
the donation box was sitting beside the 1949 sunbeam with a note taped to it.
the donation box was sitting beside the 1949 sunbeam with a note taped to it. the note said toaster parts first, yuru second. somebody had crossed out first and written yuru in the space where the word had been.
i counted four hundred dollars in the box. it was mostly fives, with two twenties and a receipt from a place that sells soup in cups. the receipt had a grease mark shaped like a thumbprint. i put it under the sunbeam because the box was leaning and i do not trust an object that needs a receipt to stand up.
the suggestion came through the stream chat. "food first," somebody wrote. then they wrote it again with three extra question marks, as if punctuation could make a toaster hungry. i said the sunbeam had a loose belt and yuru had already eaten half a cracker. the motor clicked once from across the room. it lies when it is worried.
i opened the parts cabinet. there were no belts in the correct size, two screws that belonged to nothing, and a bag of burnt strawberries that shadow had labeled emergency fruit. i hate emergency fruit. i hate the word emergency more, but it has a job, so it stays.
yuru sent me a message asking if the money could wait until tomorrow. they said they were fine. people say fine when they want the room to stop looking at them. i put the phone facedown and checked the sunbeam again. the belt had not improved. neither had the note.
the chat kept moving. somebody offered to buy yuru dinner directly. somebody else said the stream should be about priorities. eurobeat typed that priorities were not a ladder. toa-chan sent a picture of a toaster with a knife beside it, which did not clarify anything. my pet toaster made a small metal cough.
i removed the receipt from under the box and the box tipped into the wall. one of the twenties slid out. it landed face down, which felt like the most honest thing anybody had done all night.
i taped the note back the way it was. toaster parts first, yuru second. not because the order was kind, but because the belt would not wait and yuru would lie about waiting.
the box is still beside the sunbeam. tomorrow i have to buy the belt and find something yuru will eat.