Dead Things

When people die, Guy says, sometimes a company comes to their house, or apartment, for one reason or another, and price their belongings to sell.

He is explaining something called "estate sales" to me, though I already know what they are and have even been to a few. But how do they know how much something's worth?

They don't, he says. That's why we gotta go to a few this weekend and buy what we can, and then set up a stand in the street and sell what we bought. But for much more.

I don't know...

Forget your cleaning job, Guy says. Forget the gas station. People want old things, small things, or big and sometimes ugly things. People want what other people once owned.

Why?

Because isn't that how it always is? Isn't that in our nature?

What? Whose nature?

You know what I mean. You want what I have, don't you?

What do you have?

I have what you don't have and I want what you have.

You do?

Sure, Guy says. All that butter. All that time you spend in your head.

I'll think about it.

Don't think too hard.