It had been a fairly typical day at the Podex Exchange in late December. Things were getting busier with more people coming in to get money to buy presents for friends. When the tellers had a moment to chat, they'd talk about the presents they themselves were giving to friends for Christmas, or Boxing day. They also talked about how some places had been winterized, and now had seasonal activities such as skating. And there were the Christmas events, as well as the occasional "anti-Xmas" party for those whom wanted to poke the sacrhine-sweet side of the holiday in the ribs.
But as the running joke went, the sure way to get a visitor was to start chatting. And it wasn't long before someone entered. He was fairly tall, with antlers and hooflike hands and feet. He wasn't wearing much, just shorts and a harness decorated in colored light bulbs, and a nose that glowed bright red.
The tellers starred at the newcomer, one asking, "Rudolph?"
The hooved visitor chuckled, "Heh, yes and no. I guess you can say I represent him here."
"Well, how can we help you?"
"Well, me and my eight friends started a business here, and were looking to trade our Lindens for dollars, or Euros in the case of a couple of the girls."
"Certainly Sir. As a Linden exchange service, we offer reasonable rates. I assume this is your first transaction?"
"It is."
"Well, there will be some delay in the transfer for security reasons, Sir, but we promise it will not be longer than 72 hours. With the second one, there shouldn't be a delay in the payments to your bank account or Paypal."
"Is there a limit to how much we can trade?"
"Thirty thousand Lindens per week for new clients. But after a month, it goes up to fifty thousand a day. You could of course ask us to see about increasing the limit sooner."
"Sounds reasonable enough."
"Excellent. If you would just sign this paperwork …"
The red-nosed customer was given a form to fill out, and he soon had it done.
"There you go. We'll soon have our first sales to trade in."
"If you don't mind my asking, Sir, just what is it you and your friends will be doing?"
"Oh, we're building vehicles. Not cars though. We're working on sleighs for horses, breedable and otherwise. Some wag did ask why didn't we pull them, but we just answered with our two legs, it would have to be a rickshaw."
They all had a good laugh, and the antlered client went off on his way.
The Podex Exchange is located at Moonbeam (
26, 223, 34), with a website at
http://www.podex.info/. Jacek Shuftan is the CEO.
Note: The preceding is a fictional story, written for the dual purpose of advertisement and entertainment.
Bixyl Shuftan
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Podex
