Trade #2

This is Susan. (She's not a student, so I can use her real name). Ten minutes after I traded my bluepaperclip for a silver Sharpie marker, Susan was there to make my next trade. She's a teacher too, see, and she and a few other teachers already knew about the One Red Paperclip story that I was sharing. When I walked into her classroom with a little smug look on my face, she already knew what had happened.

"Did you trade your paperclip?" she asked.
"As a matter of fact I did," I told her. Then I held up the marker.
"Is it dried out?" she asked with a little smirk. I assured her it wasn't and decided to prove it. So I asked her if she had any black construction paper. She was confused. I had to explain that it was a silver Sharpie marker for use on dark surfaces. She still looked confused, so I showed her.

Susan simply marveled at the thing. Somehow, she's never heard of this new development. And though she hadn't intended on being a part of this whole thing, within seconds Susan was offering me all sorts of things from her classroom: box of staples, box of chalk, etc. I almost went with the box of candy hearts with Spanish sayings on it (Susan teaches Spanish), but when I balked a little she lit up and went into her closet.

She returned with a purple squishy ball thing with all sorts of rubbery needles all over it. She said she'd seen how much I'd enjoyed playing with it the other day (it was true... sometimes I'm as easily amused as month-old puppy) and thought I should have it. In fact, she has been telling me ever since that day that I should have never given away the purple squishy ball.

But I did. Because I got a cool offer for it.
But that's a story for another post. :)