⏱️ The Nonsense Machine

Even the dullest of people—like myself—are bound to learn a thing or two if they spend the whole summer working for Albert in the backroom of Benny’s Vacuum and Fax Machine Repairs, which is a small and typically empty business, smack in the middle of Widgeons Crossing.The learning never really stops when one works with Albert. As the hours melt to weeks and the weeks fade to months, his summer apprentices become familiar with not only the mechanics of dust sucking and dirt collection, but also the lesser-known science of discovering what makes him tick.We learn, for example, while some people refer to Albert by the store’s namesake of Benny, he refuses to respond to it; and even though the words “fax machine” are in the store’s name, he doesn’t accept them for repair anymore, and will hold a fierce grudge in the rarest of times a customer brings one in. Another lesson of the trade is that at some point in history—likely at least five or six decades ago—the phrase “it’s a little…