Pawn Shop

Pawn Shop

I never cared for pawn shops myself. I always found them dirty and sketchy just looking at the old, dusty artifacts that they hold. But now I see them in a whole different light. I will never enter another pawn shop after my last experience in one.

Not too long ago, I was digging up some of my old childhood toys that I used to have as a kid. I never had any newer toys of my own, but mostly a lot of my dad's old toys back from his childhood. My favorite one was the Evel Knievel toy that my dad got me for my 5th birthday. Seeing him land after a jump was satisfying for five year-old me. Good times. I was able to eventually find old Evel in the box, and even managed to dig up his trusty motorcycle as well. The only thing that was missing was the ramp.

After some more searching in my old box, I came to the conclusion that it was missing. I searched up the toy on Ebay, and all of the prices were ludicrous. Kajiji had nearly nothing that I needed. I knew that the only place to go for them was either a toy fair, or a pawn shop. I wasn't too enthralled with this decision, but I couldn't resist while wearing my nostalgia goggles. I put the keys into ignition, and I made my way downtown.

I pulled up to a building with large red letters saying “Pawn Shop” on it. The building was very dirty and had bars over it. I knew that I was in a different part of town now. I opened the door, and felt uneasy the moment I stepped inside of the building. There was shrimp everywhere in the room. Dead shrimp was hanging off of the ceiling, on hooks on the walls, and on ice displays all around the room. There were also giant hooks on the ceiling as well. On the back wall there was a giant harpoon gun with the harpoon still inside of it. I'm a vegetarian, and the mere sight of dead animals makes me nervous. The one thing though that disturbed me the most was the owner. It was an old man with a large, gray, unkept beard, and a large pink scar over his left eye. He made a motion with his finger for me to come over to him. His voice was gruff and worn out. He asked me “Like anything you see?” as he muttered out a small laugh. “Um, aren't there supposed to be old antiques in here? You know... old chairs and such?” He gave me an evil looking smile as he pulled out a key from his right pocket. I could see him then opening up a small door on the floor behind the counter. He grabbed me by the arm and yanked me a little. “I have some old antiques down there if that's what you seek.” He let out another laugh, still holding onto my arm.

The dead sea food, the ocean weaponry, the basement, and this creepy man were all too much for me. I jutted my arm out of his grasp, and the man fell over. I started going for the exit door. “Where are ye going to lad?!” the man yelled out as I headed out the front foor. I put my keys into the ignition and was ready to speed off before I looked back at the dreaded shop one more time. I noticed something that I horribly mistook from before. The dead shrimps, the harpoons, they all made sense now. I just misread the sign, and it had actually said “Prawn Shop”.