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Projects > Story-of-the-Day > life-pump

February 8th, 2017

Life pump
"Okay, sweetie. Put your hand in and I'll get you a lollipop."

"I don't want to mom. It hurts when I do it."

The mom set the dial to five days, grabbed Peter's arm and stuck his hand into the life pump. There was a bright flash. The mom let go of her son's arm and he pulled it back and rubbed his palm. The machine made a whirring sound and $100 came out. "Ok, now let's go get your candy."

Peter was sucking on his lollipop as they walked home.

"Mom, why don't you put your arm in the machine instead of mine?"

His mom ignored the question while continuing to walk. The both stopped and looked in horror as they approached their house. It was engulfed in flames. The mom ran to a group of firemen just standing around watching the house burn.

"Why aren't you putting out the fire! That's my house?"

A man who looked to be their leader, walked up to her. "This house hasn't paid. We're not using a drop of water until we get paid upfront."

"What? That's crazy! Here, I have almost $100, please just fix this!"

The fire chief looked at the money in her hand and said flatly, "We don't start for under $20,000."

The mom stared at the fire chief. She didn't have that kind of money. She then looked back at Peter and grabbed his arm. She dragged Peter for three blocks back to the life pump. She quickly turned the dial clockwise more than she ever had. The mother looked at her son and said, "I'm sorry, honey. But we need to do this." She put Peter's hand inside, closed her eyes, and pressed the button. There was a flash of light.

The machine whirred and money started coming out. First $100, then $1,000. Then $10,000. But it didn't stop. The money kept pouring out. After some time, the machine showed that it had paid out $584,000. Confused, the mom looked at Peter. He was wrinkly and grey.

She quickly turned in horror to look at the dial. It was set to 80 years.