Small Steps Read Online Free PDF

ticket?” X-Ray yelled at the people in front of him.
    There were two ticket windows. X-Ray went first, and when Armpit reached the one next to him, he could hear X-Ray arguing with the ticket agent. “Are you sure this is the best you got? Well, can you check?”
    Armpit paid for his tickets. They were all in row M. He counted in his head. The thirteenth row. On the back of each ticket, printed in bold letters, were the words
This ticket may not be resold.
    “M’s good,” said X-Ray. “It’s the first half of the alphabet. That’s all that matters. Just look at all those fools still waiting in line!” He laughed. “They’ll be lucky if they’re in the same zip code.”
    Armpit pointed out what was written on the back of each ticket, but X-Ray wasn’t concerned. “They can write anything they want. It doesn’t mean squat. This is America. Everything’s for sale.”
    They watched as Moses paid the last member of his crew.
    “Those guys are so cool,” X-Ray said. “That could be us in a few years.”
    Felix headed toward them. “So, X-Ray, you get good seats?”
    “Row M!”
    “M’s good,” said Felix. “First half of the alphabet.”
    “That’s what I was tellin’ Armpit.”
    “The first few rows are reserved for friends and radio stations. It’s a rip-off, but what can you do?”
    “What can you do?” X-Ray agreed.
    “Tell you what. I’ll give you seventy bucks for each ticket. That’s fifteen more than face value. Times twelve, you’ll make a hundred and eighty dollars. Ninety bucks each.”
    “They cost sixty, not fifty-five,” said Armpit.
    “Yeah I know,” said Felix. “There’s a five-dollar service charge. What a rip-off. But the thing is, you try to sell the tickets, and all the customer’s gonna see is the face value.”
    “We’re not interested,” said X-Ray.
    “All right, I’ll pay the damn service charge. Seventy-five a ticket.”
    “We can do a lot better,” said X-Ray.
    “Maybe,” Felix agreed. “Maybe you can. I’m not saying you can’t. But you never know. A bird in the hand. Ninety dollars, Armpit, for just a morning’s work. Hard to beat that.”
    “We’re not interested,” said X-Ray.
    “Armpit looks interested. How about it, Armpit?”
    It did sound pretty good to him. Ninety dollars was more than he made in two days of digging.
    “They sold for seven hundred and fifty in Philly,” said X-Ray.
    “Austin ain’t Philly,” said Felix. “And row M ain’t exactly the front row.”
    “We were ahead of your guys in line,” said X-Ray. “Whatever we got has to be better than anything you got.”
    “Look, I’m not saying you couldn’t make more than seventy-five dollars a ticket. I wouldn’t be talkin’ to you if I didn’t think so. But there’s risk, too. Right now, things are looking pretty good. Big demand. Short supply. The price can only go up. But there was a big demand when Dylan played here a few years back. So you know what they did? They added a second show. You’re the economist, Armpit. You know what happens when supply goes up?”
    “The price goes down?”
    “Like an elevator with a busted cable. I was lucky to unload my inventory. Or what do you think would happen if we learn that sweet little Miss Kaira is pregnant? Or say she burns the American flag in some kind of political protest? I can tell you what would happen. You wouldn’t be able to give your tickets away.”
    “Yeah, well, if it’s so risky, then why do you want the tickets so badly?” asked X-Ray.
    “This is my business. If I lose money on Kaira DeLeon, I’ll make it up next week on someone else. You’re going to have to put an ad in the paper. That costs money. Me, I already got a running ad. It costs me the same no matter how many tickets I’m selling.”
    “A fixed cost,” Armpit said as it all suddenly made sense to him.
    “And I got connections, too,” Felix went on. “Every hotel concierge knows who to call if some guest wants tickets. All