Computer, TV and shoe shopping...

Sandra hadn’t been known to be a tech expert, but of the two of them she supposed that her knowledge was probably light years ahead of Jason’s. “Alright, it’s not far from here, so I could probably just walk in while you wait here.” she instructed the boy. She didn’t wait for an answer and began to walk over to where she had spotted a computer shop earlier. As she walked she wondered which movie to show Jason first. She had to show him Caligula, but she wasn’t sure if he’d still want to watch movies with her if she did. Maybe she should ease him into the exploitation genre with some slasher films, he might like Friday the Thirteenth.

Anyway, when she finished her stroll over to the computer store she entered the building and began to browse the display cases for what would suit Jason’s needs the best. She walked and analyzed at the same time as she continued through the aisles of the store. She had quite a difficult time figuring out which would be better and added to that was the fact that there was a clerk nearly looking over her shoulder watching to make sure she didn’t steal anything. She thought it was a bit rude, but she remembered that she was wearing a giant coat so it might’ve been called for. The vendors around the end of the marketplace they were at seemed to be psychopaths.

Finally, she exited the store and yelled for Jason. “I’ve found one for you!” she shouted across the marketplace to wherever he was. The one she had decided on was one in the display of the front window. It was a laptop that was over half a foot long, it came in grey and black, and it was a bit over four hundred dollars since it was on clearance. She directed her finger to where it was in the window.

    Jason started at the tiny computer he was being shown.  It was a computer alright, the sign said so, but the fact it was so tiny made him cringe.  It looked like one of those miniature things girls buy because they think it is cute.  "No offense Sandra, but this thing looks so tiny, and I feel like I am going to break it just by picking it up.  I guess I can go inside for a minute and try it out."  Jason walked inside and asked the sales clerk if he could show him the computer Sandra pointed out.  He tried to place his hands over the keys to try and press some buttons to see how it would feel to work with it.  His hands clumsily bumped into each other several times.  He didn't want to hurt her feelings, but at the same time he didn't want to buy something that was uncomfortable to him. "I could always buy this one and steal another one of my choosing," this thought haunted him from his old days.  "No I can't do that, I am not that person anymore," thought as he shook the idea out of his head.

    Jason had turned his head to the right and something happened to catch his eye.  He saw the words: "Tough Book" over one of the computers.  "How about one of those computers?" He asked Sandra pointing to the sign a little bit down the way.  They were Panasonic Tough Books, and they boasted being waterproof, and drop resistant and were about twice the size or the one Sandra had shown him.  "How about these?  Are the the same as the one you were showing me before?  I figure it may be a better idea to get one that would be more.....  Durable since it would be my first computer ever."  Jason asked her, almost painting a picture that he was clumsy.

Sandra was a bit confused by Jason’s rejection of the laptop she had picked out for him. She had thought that the intention was to get a small computer, but perhaps that was lost in translation. Either way didn’t really matter to her, it wasn’t like she was the one buying the laptop. She wasn’t really insulted by it, she didn’t know much about computers so anyone else could be her superior in this case.

She followed the boy into the store, glancing over at every laptop he stopped to look at. Her eyes tended to browse the rest of the store while she waited for Jason to make his choice. She felt that leaving him to choose his own computer might be a bad idea since he wouldn’t have a good frame of reference for them, but ultimately it was completely up to him since he was the one paying for it.

Once the boy spotted something he called for her and she took a look at what he found. It was advertised as being fairly resilient and Sandra thought that he might be over exaggerating his clumsiness. She’s met some clumsy people before, but they never needed such heavy duty computers. While raising a brow she turned to him “there’s no way you could be that clumsy, are you really around a large amount of water that often? You know besides the fact you go to school on an island” she spoke in a skeptical tone. “If you want to get that one that’s fine, but you could probably buy one that isn’t a tank for much cheaper.”

    "Well I was thinking I like to do lots of work outside, and if it were to start suddenly raining, like it could since we are in the middle of the ocean, I wouldn't have a broken computer then!"  Jason replied to Sandra with a smile of excitement finding something he think would be perfect for himself, "But what I really want to know is if this computer is exactly like the one you showed me before or if it is worse, since I really don't trust sales people seeing as they like to push the most expensive things they can onto people.  And once we finish this up, we have 1 more stop and can watch some VHS's!"  The shopping trip was slowly becoming more fun for him, but at the same time Jason was anxious to get it over with.

Sandra listened to his explanation and still felt it wasn’t very sound. Sure it made sense, but not enough to warrant buying a heavy duty laptop that was ready to take a nuke. “Normal laptops don’t short out after a couple of raindrops and if it that big of a deal bring a backpack with you to store it in. If you’re that determined to buy it though, then by all means buy it” she spoke quite snootily. She didn’t have to continue the argument, but she wasn’t going to lose it.

Jason did need professional advice and she was the best he had besides a potentially greedy salesman, which Sandra disagreed that he was, but there was a possible chance he could be. She tried to remember how Panasonic faired with the other brands. They made good enough VHS and DVD players, so they might be a good brand to recommend. She only remembered to basics of computer brands, which is Acer is garbage and Apple is overpriced. “I think that Panasonic is a decent brand, I prefer Sony, but I don’t think you could go wrong with that one” she said in an unsure tone. Computers were really not her thing and having to give advice for a device she knew little about was very difficult and she did not feel good about the advice she was giving. What if Panasonic was as bad as Acer? At least they would be buying television sets next, she knew those fairly well.

    After the whole computer fiasco was over, Jason turned and asked Sandra where the best place would be to go in order to get a decent TV.  The amount of time they spent shopping was only a couple of hours, but it felt like it dragged on forever.  "I can't wait for this to end, I just want to go back and relax at this point." he thought to himself.  The thought of his new computer made him happy though, it was something new for him to learn and would open up many new things for him to do, like figure out his power more.

With the whole computer business being wrapped up, that left one last item on the agenda; the television set. This trip was probably going to be the fasted of the three given that Sandra could pick out a TV for Jason much easier than a laptop. She still felt that made a lousy choice in computer, but whatever his computer not hers. “There’s a small shop right over here that sells set and equipment for cheap, this is the place I go to.” she replied as she pointed to the building right next door to the computer place. It looked a tad bit run down, but it was kept as clean as it could for being a small business, at least the display windows looked to be well kept.

Jason seemed to have lost a lot of his enjoyment during the trip, but Sandra still had a bit left since she still couldn’t decide on what movie to show him. Perhaps she should let him choose based on the box cover when they get back. “Come on” she quickly announced before he could possibly respond to her. She waved at him to hurry as she threw open the door and pushed it further open to give the boy enough time to enter before it closed.

Once she enter the shop she was greeted by an overweight man on the other side of the room behind the checkout counter. “Sandra! We just got those stereo speakers back in stock!” he excitedly announced to her as if she was the only costumer he’s seen in weeks. “Maybe some other time, Richard. I got a friend here who needs a TV set!” she carried her voice across the room. “Of course, the sets are on the back wall.” He responded seeming to switch from having a light Russian accent to an American one.

The wall the salesperson was speaking of had a variety of large boxy televisions that had a variety of differently coloured tags with black sharpie written on them and slapped onto the corners of the screens. The store had an off smell to it, like it might have traces of mold somewhere in the building, but Sandra was well adjusted to it.

    The TV store Sandra lead Jason to seemed old and a little run down, but she had been nice enough helping him all day, so he wouldn't complain about it.  Sandra started talking to the sales clerk in the store.  "I guess she has this under control," Jason thought to himself,"I guess I'll just wait here until she is finished to make this as painless as possible.  Jason started to roam around the store checking out all the different types of TV's around it, making sure to not touch them not wanting to risk breaking anything.

Jason quietly entered the store, not saying a word as he browsed the area. Sandra supposed that meant she had free range to choose whatever TV she wanted for him. She quickly paced herself to the back of the store as she gazed upon the mighty wall of television sets. It had a huge variety of shapes and a bit of colour, though most were silver-ish and stark black. There were some as small as the average alarm clock boasting they were worth more than thirty dollars and ones that seemed they couldn’t even fit in a refrigerator box going for under six hundred dollars.

Sandra was overwhelmed for a moment or so, but decided to judge by brand name and not just size alone. She kept repeating through her brain Sony and Samsung as she searched each shelve left and right. She then picked out the few that seemed the most reasonably priced and decent sized since they had to carry it back with them. She finally came down to one set that appeared to be about sixteen or so inches, it was 129.99$, it wasn’t widescreen, and the back of it didn’t seem too large. It looked like it might not be too heavy to carry. “I think I found a good one!” she shouted over to Jason as she pointed toward the TV she had been analysing for a short while.

    Jason walked over to the TV Sandra was pointing at.  It looked like every other TV in the store, but they were definitively a lot different then what he expected them to be, think of old projection and flat screen TVs that weight over a hundred pounds.  "Looks good enough for me," he said to Sandra gratefully know that the trip was almost over.  "Just one question, are we going to watch the movies you want on my TV or yours when we get back?" he chuckled a little bit.  "Anyway, lets get one and head to the counter and be on our way!"

Being only relieved half as much as Jason that the shopping trip had nearly come to an end, Sandra tried her best to grab the TV so that they could bring it up to the cash register. It was an awkward object to try and carry since it had no handles and there was no place to get a good grip onto it. She sort of felt around the set in an attempt to find something to latch onto. She eventually gave up with that and instead went with a hugging tactic instead. Given that she was wearing mittens it wasn’t making it any easier.

She pulled the television off of the shelf with all her might (which wasn’t much to be honest) and having to lean back once she was the only thing holding up its weight. The TV wasn’t nearly as heavy as she was making it out to be, it was just that she was incredibly small and never had too much muscle mass throughout her entire life. “I got it” she struggled to say as her face became a little bit red “I think” she continued in a much quieter tone as she tried her hardest to walk and carry the TV at the same time. She was able to make a very small step before she paused again while adjusting the tube because she felt it might slip.

“Depends if you can handle living inside a volcano for a few hours” she answered jokingly, but still in a struggling tone almost sounding as though she was running out of air to breathe. Her eyes were a bit buggy at this point and her face was quite stern. She was sort of regretting testing her luck since the shelf was too high up for her to put it back with the lack of strength she had.