The Death of Enthusiasm

When I was at Disney world a few weeks ago I went on the Star Tours ride just for old time's sake (it's kind of lame). The exits to all the major rides at Disney world are usually themed stores filled with related merchandise and thus the exit to the Star Tours ride is a giant Star Wars store with all kinds of nerd-friendly products. The thing that caught my eye was a large display that was labeled "Build your own lightsaber." Not only could you assemble a custom made lightsaber with a bevy of different parts, you could make it double-sided a la Darth Maul, or even emulate the lightsabers of the characters in the movies. After some deliberation I decided to go ahead and build my own lightsaber, because it's not everyday that you have the chance to fulfill one of your childhood fantasies.

I opted to go for the "Obi Wan Kenobi" style lightsaber and my little brother went for some kind of double sideded monstrosity. We had fun putting them together and choosing the different little goo-gahs that you could add on to them. As we were building the lightsabers I looked around and saw that the only other people around us were little boys and one lonely looking 45-year-old.

Here's where this story really gets interesting. We went to go pay for the lightsabers and our cashier was an African guy who was in hindsight kind of acting a little strange (slurring his words and swaying back and forth) but I just figured he was tired. As I reached down to get the money out of my wallet I heard a sharp cracking noise and then a muffled gasp. I looked up to see our cashier on the ground convulsing like mad having passed out and hit his head on the wall behind him as he fell. Several coworkers rushed to his aid and they had sent for paramedics before I even realized what was going on. Meanwhile I dumbly stood there with crinkled dollar bills in one hand and my freshly built monument to nerdery in the other. After a few seconds one of the employees helpfully told me to find another register and we were able to make our purchase without further incident. I'm not sure what happened to that guy, for all I know he could be dead.