Kindly, old lazer pointer repair-man

When Janet’s laser pointer broke during her big presentation, she ran from the meeting room crying. She knew her power point was weak on the standard special effects of text sliding in, and dissolving into the next screen but it didn’t matter. She had purchased an inexpensive laser pointer at Target and planned on carrying her presentation with that. She had spent the night before practicing her ‘wristing’ and figure eights on her bedroom wall. She was certain that her flair for pointing would wow the execs, and cause them to instantly approve her project. But only 30 seconds into the presentation it stopped working. She thought she jarred the batteries loose, so she slapped it a few times but it flew from her hand and landed on the floor lifeless. Scooping it up, she began to cry. She looked to the others, but was met with a dissaproving scowl, which made her frantic to repair the situation. But she quickly realized that there was nothing she could do to reverse it. That’s why she was now seated outside the building on the front steps weeping.



Then a shadow fell over her. It was the shadow of an old man with a push-cart. He was gray haired and wearing worn, bib overalls. He had thick glasses magnified his eyes to ridiculous proportions, and his two enormous pupils smiled down on her. “Now, what is a sweet girl like you doing crying on such a beautiful day like this?” He cooed.
“My… My presentation… My… Laser pointer…” She managed to spit out before bursting into tears again.
“Now, now. Let’s not get all excited.” He said, leaning down to get a better look at the pointer. “Oh well, that’s nothing big! I think we can fix it up good as new.”
“You really think so? You think you can fix it?”
“Sure we can.” He said, gently taking it from her hands. After opening it up to peer into it’s battery carriage, then scratching his head, he finally lit up. “I know!” He whispered excitedly as if to himself. Then he opened up his push-cart and pulled out a tiny spring. “There we go!” He announced, “Good as new.”
“Gee, thanks mister!” Janet squealed as she jumped up and down in excitement.
“Nothin’ doin’. Why don’t you go back in there, and I bet you everything will be all right now.” He said, a smile peeking out from his large, silver mustache. After a moment, Janet quickly gave him a smooch on his cheek and dashed, embarrassed, into the building.

The old man stood on the sidewalk in front of the steps looking after her. Then, he turned toward the sun contemplating the cloudless, blue sky. Opening his cart again, he pulled out a soda and took a careful, and deliberate swig, “Mmmmm… Cracklin’ good.” He said to himself, then pushed on to the next office building.