The flute²⁰

He said, “Do you want an expensive one or an inexpensive one?”

I said, “Inexpensive.” The most inexpensive flutes were four hundred dollars; the others were twelve hundred and even two thousand or three thousand dollars.

Then he said to me, “If you know how to play, I advise you to go into our studio and play; then you can see if you like the flute. But if you don’t know how to play, the best thing is for you to look at it in front of me here.” He very nicely suspected me. After I had played for two seconds, he said, “You don’t have to play here.” Then he took me to the studio.

Whether it was his sincerity or flattery, God knows, but after I played for two or three minutes he said, “You are a concert flautist. You should not play this flute. You should use an open-hole flute.”

Inwardly I said, “What is his intention? Those flutes are four thousand dollars. He may just be flattering me to get the money. Flattery sometimes makes you lose your sense of proportion.” So I said, “I can’t play that kind of flute.”

The flute that I was going to buy was three hundred dollars. But he flattered me to such an extent that I decided to get one that cost about a thousand dollars. When I was about to pay the bill, Alo came into the store. She said, “A thousand dollars!”

But I said to myself, “I sell so many flute tapes. In two weeks I will be able to make this money back. I won’t be wasting money. Now I will be able to make more tapes and sell them.”

So I bought the expensive flute. Now I am practising on it, and I am already planning to make several more tapes.