A furniture store in Michigan had a sign in the window. EVERYTHING MUST GO.
I understood. There was an emergency. The building was being cleared.
I went in. Nobody was moving anything. A man was sitting in a recliner, eating a sandwich.
A samurai does not stand still during an evacuation.
I picked up a lamp and carried it to the parking lot. Then a side table. Then a recliner, which I carried on my back like a turtle.
A salesman came out. "Sir. Sir. It's a sale."
I said the sign said everything.
"It's an expression."
I said I had read it four times and it did not say expression.
He thought about that. Then he held the door.
I moved fourteen recliners. Two men from the loading dock came out and helped, because, one of them said, "He's not wrong." The man with the sandwich finished it and moved a coffee table.
The manager gave me a hat and a discount card. I bought nothing. I do not need furniture. I needed the sign to be true.
The next morning the sign said EVERYTHING MUST GO (SALE). In marker. In the corner.
I consider this a victory for both of us.