Envy and the Parts Store

(This is a very rough draft of the story that popped into my head the other day. I hope to develop it further.)

There was once a young man who greatly enjoyed walking around his small town on the weekends. He would invariably run into friends, but he even liked just observing those he didn’t know. He would make up stories for them to entertain himself, and he often envied the people he had created in his mind.

One particular weekend morning, he stumbled across a new store that he had never seen before. He was curious as to why he hadn’t, as he had been down this road many times. The sign for it was simple. No flowery script, no flashing lights, just a hand painted sign of black on white, which read even more simply “Parts Store”.

The familiar bell of many businesses rang through the small establishment as he entered, and a man from behind the counter looked up from his readings, smiled and stood to greet the young man.

“Welcome, welcome, welcome. The Parts Store is here to meet your needs. I run the place. My name is Victor.” Victor extended a hand in a relaxed yet professional manner.

As the young man shook Victor’s hand, he was partially distracted by the decorations inside the shop. There were no parts on shelves, no piles or bins of gently used things, just pictures of peoples’ faces by the thousands.

Victor chimed in, “It can be a lot to take in, I am sure. So, who do you want to be?”

The young man was slightly jostled from his perusal of the cluttered walls. All he could muster was a confused look at Victor, stunned by the question.

Victor shook his head with a chuckle, "I sell parts, dear boy. Not car parts, not tools, not anything you would think. I sell human parts. I can make you into whoever you wish to be.”

Victor guided the young man over to a drawer and opened it. Inside were different arrangements of small facial parts, all neatly stored in small containers filled with liquid.

Victor continued,” Would you like a new nose? New ears? Eyebrows? What’ll it be?”

The young man’s wonderment quickly shifted to uncertainty. He felt like he was being pranked, and this was an odd prank indeed. However, he followed Victor to the full length mirror that stood in the shop.

“I’ll go and get my things ready, and you can take a moment to figure out what you would like to change.” Victor said as he scurried off into the back of the shop, with mixtures of paper shuffling and metallic noises emanating from the back shortly after.

The young man looked into the mirror and began to study himself. He had always hated the way he looked. Sure, he had plenty of friends, but he still didn’t like how he appeared. Nose was too big, eyebrows were too thick, eyes were a little too droopy, ears were too noticeable. His gaze then shifted to the rest of his body. His stomach, round and paunchy, had to go. He wanted to be taller, and have stronger muscles. He finally had his chance to be who he wanted to be. He started looking through the pictures of the people on the wall, choosing facial and body features he enjoyed the thought of having. After a half an hour, Victor emerged from the back of the shop once again.

“So, my boy, what’ll it be?”

The young man turned toward Victor and told him everything he wanted. Nearly nothing was the same. He wanted to be who he imagined himself to be, without any more hesitation. Victor smiled and walked to the front door, turning the OPEN sign to CLOSED, and then guided the young man into the back of the shop.

Four hours of tedious labor later, the young man emerged completely new. He stood in front of the mirror and was almost overwhelmed with elation. Victor came out, congratulated him, and ushered him out the door, changing the sign back to OPEN as he did.

The young man was so excited to show off his new look that he ran to a spot where he knew his friends would be hanging out. When he got there, a skate park that had been covered in graffiti, he was glad to see that he was right. He ran up to one of his friends and gave them a big hug.

His friend struggled and pushed him away. “Whoa, dude,” his friend said, “Who the hell are you?”

The young man told him his name, but his friend was still unsettled, thinking he was some random crazy person off the street. When the other friends noticed this, they gathered around in support of the bewildered friend who had pushed the young man away. Eventually, even after extensive attempts to get his friends to believe him, he was chased from the skate park.

His reception at home was the same. His parents didn’t recognize him, and his own father threw him out, telling him he didn’t want to see him on the property again.

The young man was distraught, and walked back to the Parts Store. The sign said CLOSED, but the young man barged in anyway. He went straight to the counter, ringing the bell for service. A light flickered on in the back of the shop, and a few seconds later Victor emerged, apparently awoken from resting from his long day.

Victor managed to force a professional demeanor. “Ah, welcome back my boy. Come to tell me how excited you are to finally have what you wanted?”

The young man recounted his plights, where no one recognized him and had even become hostile with him, and he demanded that Victor reverse the process and turn him back into who he was.

Victor sighed,” I am sorry, my boy, I could get you back to as close as possible, but your parts have already been claimed. A younger man came in shortly after you left, and after he too was less shocked, he described you to a T.”

Victor shuffled through his folders on the desk, flipping through a few before finding the one he was looking for, sliding the folder across the desk to the young man.

“You can try and track him down if you want. Perhaps the two of you can strike a deal. Shouldn’t be hard to find him, since he looks just like you. It was odd though, he swore up and down that he wanted to be just like you.”

The young man whipped open the folder, searching for a name, but froze on the picture just inside the front of the folder. A tear rolled down his cheek as he stood, stepping away from the desk for a moment.

“Is something wrong my boy?” Victor chimed in.

The young man turned toward Victor and composed himself for a moment, overcome with emotion.

“Victor, that’s my little brother.”