The Red Elephant

One Bostonian would consider why 'secret' card-treasure(s) is a needful-thing and not (representatively) a 'thing' of depreciation(s)!

A special baseball-fan 'metaphysics' toast to the 'unforgettable' 1990 World Series and inspired by the hauntingly message-rich American film Needful Things (Stephen King adaptation), which I hope you like, 

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Amlan Satan had always been an eccentric young boy, having moved from politically-troubled Algeria to the United States with his nuclear-family where he settled into New England (Boston) and developed an almost-uncanny sense of fanfare for baseball-cards. Some of his friends as well as a cards-store merchant/owner would claim, in fact, that his cards-set was almost heavenly! In fact, his collection included iconic trophies, a few from the 'classic' era but most from the modern age which cast special imaginations about what comprised the socialized media-era sense of sportsmanship treasure-identification. His cards weren't necessarily worth millions, but they certainly were symbols of what made baseball-cards the 'idealized' form of sports-mementos and therefore included 'key' celebrities/athletes who 'typified' the modern TV-fanfare era/spirits of baseball cheering. 

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AMLAN: I've a Canseco, Olerud, Sosa, Bonds, and a Jim Abbott Olympics-USA card too! 

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He was now an adult and sought the rare and 'treasure' set of the iconic 1990 World Series Reds team-set. The 1990 Reds had bounced back from the Pete-Rose scandal age and were resurrected as triumphant underdogs, having surmounted an unlikely challenge from a rather dominant and offensive powerhouse team (Athletics) which included Canseco and Henderson! The Game 2 of the 1990 World Series is considered by many to be a YouTube 'masterpiece' viewing for Western fans of the iconic field-and-batting competitive game, a tribute (arguably) to the 'chess' diagrams of what makes the American sport so 'certainly' distinct or memorable. It was a 'stalemate' of competition-angst, given the 'weight' of the competitors/celebrities involved, as Satan would argue/think. 

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AMLAN: I got the treasure (finally); the iconic 1990 World Series Reds team-set (Upper-Deck); it's a 'true' shine. 

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He was still living in New England (Boston), and though he was a Sox-fan (obviously), he still considered his Reds (Upper-Deck) treasure a 'gem' for immortality. He was living with his girlfriend (Shelbye), and they were about to get married and lived in a nice shared condo in a residential area of Boston after having met each other at Harvard-Square. He got them a 'fantastic' Hitachi-Plasma (TV-HD) set and they'd watch the 1990 World Series Game 2 on YouTube on it. Everything was ideal. However, a 'stranger' had somehow sensed this fortune-gem, the 1990 Reds cards-set of Satan, and decided to test his faith/mettle. This stranger moved into the condo neighboring that of the one shared by Amlan/Shelbye. The stranger was a man with a white-mustache named Leland. 

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LELAND: I'll give you $1M for your Reds (Upper-Deck) team-set, Mr. Satan.

AMLAN: How'd you have $1M but you live in a modest condo next-door to us, Leland?

LELAND: Well, I like to live humbly/secretly while investing in the stocks, you see, Mr. Satan!

AMLAN: I have to talk about this with Shelbye, but certainly this offer is not something to take lightly, Leland (thanks). 

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Amlan ran to his darling Shelbye and revealed this 'magical' proposal to her, explaining that 'certainly' a fat-sum of $1M was surely worth more in expendable luxuries than a 'comparable' random cards-treasure for baseball-fanfare by an 'ordinary' citizen. However, Shelbye began to weep, insisting that the Reds (Upper-Deck) team-set was somehow their 'shared' secret treasure of life which they both considered a 'champagne' of their conversational romance and TV/YouTube activity and wanted Amlan Satan to 'think' of the possibility that this 'stranger' Leland was perhaps a disguised 'Martian' or perhaps the Devil himself, seeking to 'trade' money for romance to test their relationship now in New England. 

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SHELBYE: I think this 'stranger' (Leland) means to have you under-value the 'weight' in gold for the cards, against us!

AMLAN: I suppose there's some 'merit' in what you're arguing here, darling, but are you seriously refusing $1M? 

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Amlan sold the cards to Leland and one week later Shelbye left him forever. He'd never forget this 'personal-failure' after which the stranger promptly disappeared from his life altogether, having moved abruptly, and some of the neighbors claimed Leland was some kind of 'blood-diamond' pirate who was now living somewhere in Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) as a gem-merchant of the underground linked to some pretty 'shadowy' UK-doctors of sin. Amlan Satan realized he'd sold his treasure-of-life to a 'man' who was, perhaps, a 'dark-messenger' of the errs of man, of the vanities of man, of the 'tendency' of men to exchange designs for gold. Amlan Satan decided to become a born-again Christian and vowed never-again to consider any 'personal diamond' a 'thing' for negotiated distances...or even doughnuts! 

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes) 

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