The stories a slow month tells

A man in Salmiya sells second-hand board games online from his flat. November was slow, and a slow month never arrives alone. It brings stories with it.

Some of them are true and worth keeping. His regular buyers come back because every box is checked piece by piece before it leaves, and they know it. That is true whether or not a single new customer ever notices, which is what makes it something to build on. In a slow month, more of it is a direction.

Some are not quite true, and help anyway. Telling himself that the next listing might be the one that brings in a new crowd is probably generous. It also gets him photographing the next listing. A belief like that earns its place, as long as he knows what kind of belief it is.

Some are true and do nothing. A seller across town undercut him in the spring and took a few customers. It happened. He can turn it over every evening, and it will not change one thing about December.

And some are neither. The market here is finished. Nobody plays any more. People only want new things. These feel like realism, but they are not facts, and they lead only to a quieter shop and a sourer mood.

None of this is about thinking positively. It is about sorting. Is this story true? Does it help? A story that only helps can carry him for a while. A story that is both will carry him for as long as he needs, because it does not depend on anyone else agreeing with it.