The eight hours for the auction were over and Andrew wanted to check what had happened, but, there was a crowd in the store. He weaved from a customer to customer and plied his trade. Offering them tidbits about the merchandise.

When the clock showed eight, he finished the last three customers, two of which wanted cards with some items from the store after he told them that it was a possibility. Then, he packed his things and went home, almost skipping along.

When he came back, Erin was sitting on the couch and was leafing through a book Andrew had been reading for a while now. He didn’t remember at what page he had left off, so, he hung his head low.

“You were on page 563. I wrote it down,” said Erin, pointing at a sticky note on the coffee table. “This is a good book. So, you like Egypt?”

“My dream is to become an archeologist,” said Andrew. He then unpacked his laptop on the kitchen table. “I had some things from the store sold on auctions. Do you want to see?”

Erin scooted closer and Andrew grinned. Yes, he had thought so, too. Andrew went to the eBay page and navigated until he found the auction page. First, he checked William’s painting. It had gone up to 20,334 dollars. Andrew whopped with joy as Erin gaped.

“Now this is something,” said the brown-haired man, rising an eyebrow at the number. “How much of the money do you get to keep?”

“Five percent,” said Andrew proudly. Karl had offered him ten, but Andrew had felt it was like a robbery. Erin did the calculation in his mind and grinned.

“That is more than a thousand dollars. Great job!” Andrew raised his hand for a high five and Erin obliged. Then, they checked the rest of the things. Some things were being sold for up to a thousand dollars, but, for the most part, the wares were in the 100-200 price range. Still, it was more than Karl would have gotten for them.

“Why don’t you simply buy the things and sell them and keep all the money for yourself?” Asked Erin, then, as they calculated Andrew’s winnings for the day. He had gotten close to three thousand dollars. That was rent and food for quite a bit of time.

“I feel it would be better not to rob Karl. He gave me a chance,” Erin got a thoughtful look.

“If I bring some things to you, could you sell them? You seem to have a knack for advertising and taking nice photos,” Erin looked at the shiny photo and had to admire Andrew’s skills.

“The photos were done with my phone. I don’t have a camera. I did edit them. Furthermore, I have this Photoshop knockoff that came with the laptop,” said Andrew, and the gears in Erin’s brain began to turn.

Erin didn’t have a laptop or a phone, but Andrew did. He could buy some less known herbs from the Tiger and Dragon shop and have Andrew sell them to gullible people who believed in chakras and Qi and flying unicorns. Then, he wouldn’t have money problems anymore. That meant blood every day, not a bottle every three days.

“I will give you a cut of the sales. Please, I really need your help,” pleaded Erin and Andrew began to nod without hesitating even a bit.

“I don’t see an issue with that. Just make sure you don’t bring something too weird, ok? I can’t have people turning away from my account because of a dried penis or something,” Erin snickered. Yes, everyone assumed that, that was what they sold. But Ling Mei had told him that the dried part was the balls and that she didn’t sell them, anyway.

“No dried or fresh penises, got it,” Andrew cracked a smile, and he went to his Shopify account next. To check on what got sold on there. He had placed only things that were in storage in there. Nothing that was in the store. So that he didn’t have to update the page too often.

His eyes widened as he saw the sales. Unavailable was written next to most of the things. Only the elephants didn’t seem to be selling. Nikola figured that the fashion that demanded that everyone had to have a porcelain elephant was completed.

“Your boss should give you a rise,” commented Erin. Andrew knew that Karl would in a heartbeat.

“I need to send him a list with everything he needs to send off tomorrow,” said Andrew as he printed the Shopify report. The auction he had to turn into an Excel spreadsheet. But, he finished in an hour and send everything to Karl’s email.

Andrew yawned and stood up. He was way overdue for some sleep. He hadn’t taken any photos to get more things auctioned so, he had nothing else to do for tonight.

“Can you leave this here? I haven’t read the news in forever,” asked Erin, and Andrew shrugged before yawning again. He left the laptop behind and went to bed.

Erin first checked his Facebook page. He was apparently pronounced dead. He didn’t dare check his email. Just in case someone was looking at it and trying to track him with it.

Then, he checked how his parents were doing. His father was in rehab and his mother was still working her dead-end job. He supposed that nothing had changed on that front.

He had the urge to contact them. To tell them that he was alive, of sorts. But then, he remembered how there were government nuts after him, and he pushed the urge down to the deepest parts of his mind.

Thereafter, he began to research what was the most known Chinese medicine. He needed to avoid buying it, seeing as it was dirt cheap. He made a list, compiled from a couple of blogs, and turned off the laptop.

Tomorrow would be a new day. He would be a performing monkey when the customers were slow on coming in, and he would smile and bear it when they did come in. But, when the day was over, and he got his pay, he will buy the most obscure root or leaves or tiger placenta or what have you, and he would bring it to Andrew to sell. And then, his money problems would be over.