Cockroach Gumballs

There are three candy machines situated on the show room floor of the pawn shop. One is by the front door and the other two are next to the Pay Day and Pawn counters. One of these machines dispenses gumballs and it was inside of this one that a cockroach was found. Alive.

How it got in there, the world may never know--but a good guess is that it climbed into the box where we keep the extra gumballs and was dumped in. The box sits in the back room, open, on the floor. It seems like the most plausible answer, but I find it much more entertaining to believe that this cockroach was a misfit and wanted something more out of life, that he sought adventure, found the gumball machine, felt a comforting urge to scale it, and then squeezed through the gears and passageways that compose the innards of the machine. What a joy it would have been to put up such a struggle and then find oneself reclining atop a red gumball!

It's a shame the cockroach's gumball repose was cut short, but there is some comfort to be found in his death. I'm sure all the other roaches held a vigil to honor his bravery and determination, that they now recognize him for the free spirit he was and are ashamed of how they shunned him for his quirky antics.

Moving on, I haven't seen many bugs inside the pawn shop, and, sadly, I did not witness the cockroach squirming across the gumballs in the gumball machine. I also doubt I will see many bugs in the future. Since the gumball incident, we have had a pest exterminator come out to the shop. He sprayed some chemicals and placed little cardboard triangles around the edges of the walls throughout the showroom floor and back area. The inside of them are sticky and are meant to capture then slowly starve any insects and/or mice that attempt to scurry through said triangles.

I looked inside one today and found something. It was a graveyard of dust bunnies. No insects were to be seen.