A.H.A
A.H.A, Aha, also known as Appliance Headed Anonymous, was a new but rapidly growing community of support, communal sharing and healing in the city. Or so the poster said.
Mr. Bell sat beside a gentleman with a toaster as his head. The seat on his left was empty, just like most of the seats in the circle. The organizer was another gentleman with a classical radio as his head. It was definitely a unique predicament, even compared to the rest of the group. Just from a rough look he could count three members who were television-headed, two fan-headed, and one telephone-headed, just like Mr. Bell. There was a minor difference though, the other member’s head was a button phone, while Mr. Bell’s was a classic dial phone.
“Let us begin.” The organizer stood up and announced: “Today, we welcome a new member to our group - ” He then extended his hand at Mr. Bell.
“Hello.” Mr. Bell stood up and bowed gently to everyone: “Thank you for having me. You can call me Dial.”
“Hello, Dial.” The rest of the members greeted him in unison.
“Okay, who would like to share first?” The organizer turned his head around.
Nobody answered. It was hard to tell expressions from appliance faces, but Mr. Bell could kinda tell that they were shy and embarrassed. Maybe it was the norm of the meeting. Or maybe it was him, the new guy here.
“Anyone?” The radio head of the organizer let out static noises and sounds from random radio channels. This might be from embarrassment, stress, or frustration. Similar things happened to Mr. Bell when he was feeling these emotions.
“I - I would like to share, if I may.” Mr. Bell raised his hand.
“Dial! Please go ahead!” The organizer looked relieved - it did not matter how Mr. Bell could tell, he just had this feeling.
Mr. Bell stood up. For a moment he did not know where he should put his hands, so he just made a few gestures with them to not seem too awkward: “Uh - my name is Dial - I said that already. Okay, and - I am an appliance head. I’ve been this way for quite a while. I’ve already gotten quite used to it, only until recently. I - uh - I started to resent how I am. It’s not because of anything in my life - not yet. But because I met someone, and she - ”
“She made your heart ring?” A man with a television as his head asked.
The rest of the group chuckled.
“Please, everyone, like we agreed, no interruption.” The organizer raised his voice: “And no puns!” He then turned to Mr. Bell: “Sorry, Dial, please continue.”
“It’s okay - uh - ” Mr. Bell struggled to organize his thoughts for a bit. Eventually he found the words: “She’s my coworker - I just got assigned to her department and we started working together. She’s beautiful, and kind. Once she picked up my handset and returned to me, without laughing.”
“Sounds like she really dials your number.” A woman with a humidifier head giggled, steam poured from her head’s nozzle.
“You should call her up!” The toaster-headed man next to Mr. Bell encouraged him.
“I’d love to, but I don’t know if she’s - she’s - ” Mr. Bell stammered: “I don’t know if she’s interested.”
A woman with a microwave for her head laughed out loud: “Sounds like you should crank up the heat a little!”
“Yeah! Just be more direct! Be straight to the point!” A man with a handheld drill for head cheered.
Mr. Bell took a peek at the organizer, who was looking at him with an encouraging expression. He didn’t know how he could tell, maybe it was just intuition. “I don’t know if she’s at the same frequency as - as me.”
“Please.” The organizer leaned back and groaned: “No puns! ”
Check out this story read out by the talented Kirkpattiecake!