[[Wait longer.]]

The momentum from the car keeps you rolling. You watch as the behemoth speeds off into the distance, until it becomes but a speck in the dense, bustling urban landscape. Aware but indifferent to the fact that it is gone forever, you notice a slight downward incline straight ahead in the road. \n\n[[You're excited for what may come.]] \n[[You begin to have second thoughts.]]

[[You finally feel like you have a purpose in life.]]\n[[You don't feel fulfilled yet.]]

A bustling city street rushes past your face. An endless stretch of rough, rocky asphalt disappears beneath you. Like clothes trapped in the world's most nightmarish washing machine, you spin, faster and faster. It's the only thing you have ever been able to do in your entire life. Wherever the shining metal behemoth goes, you go. Inside your 28-inch rubber prison, you can move, and yet simultaneously, you can't move.\n\nAll of a sudden, you hit a deep pothole. A loud *clang* is heard, and the rubber prison flings you from its grasp.\n\nIn that split second, you are aware that you are free, that opportunities have opened up in your life instantly and that you have another purpose to fulfill, but you aren't yet sure what to do... \n\n[[You are determined to remain mobile for as long as possible.]]\n[[You feel like causing a bit of mischief.]]\n[[You feel lonely and scared almost immediately.]]

Soon, you hear the roar of an engine. Smelly, gloved hands lift you and toss you into the back of a truck which then drives off. You are almost certain that this is the garbage truck and that a fiery death awaits you at the recycling center. Your life begins to flash before your eyes...\n\n[[Start]]

[[You feel lonely and scared almost immediately.]]

After a day's worth of well-deserved play, the boy picks you back up and returns to his home with you. He carries you upstairs and drops you on the floor, among the accumulated mass of plastic toys building blocks and action figures. You feel right at home amongst them. Skid marks, dirt and shoe prints cover your face, but you could care less! You got to experience being around joyous children today, and will undoubtedly experience it again throughout the rest of your existence.\n\n"Tomorrow I think I'll play Pirates versus Robots," as he climbs into his bed, and you gleam at the thought of what that entails for you.

The stranger takes you into a store around the corner. You notice that the sign on the front reads "Pawn Shop." With eagerness, the stranger hands you across the counter to the clerk, who reaches into and hands over a large wad of money to the stranger. Pleased with this exchange, the stranger departs.\n\nYou are then taken behind the counter and lowered into a large glass case, propped up against a small metal stand. It is here that you remain, tacky and kitschy for all the world to see.

You lay there in wait, immobile, hoping for someone or something to come by and change your course of fate. But nothing happens.\n\n[[Wait longer.]]\n[[Decide to do something about it.]]

The Hubcap

Over time, the young man goes on to launch an incredibly successful rap career, releasing 6 albums that all went platinum. Fans everywhere refer to him with such nicknames as "Mr. Automobile" and "The Next Flava Flav, But With A Hubcap Instead of a Clock". You feel you have evolved from being just a hubcap into something more - an icon. You are never able to tell Mr. Automobile any of this, but you feel that you are the sole reason for his popularity and success, and he would never have made it to where he is today had he not found you in the street.

You find yourself sinking slowly into the depths of the river, then settle at the bottom as a cloud of sand erupts around you. Hope you like looking at fish, rocks and discarded trash, because you aren't going anywhere for a while.

You fly through the air at terrifying speed. You head straight for the sidewalk and collide with the face of an unsuspecting passerby. \n\n[[This pleases you greatly.]]\n[[You do not care.]]

You are now in a crowded nightclub. Flashing lights, hordes of dancing people, and pulsating music fill the area. You are moving slowly through the crowd, turning heads and eliciting stares, thus making you feel more and more ridiculous. You don't like the way the diamonds look or feel on you, but the young rapper that now wears you around his neck craves the attention. \n\n"Yo, son, you look stupid with that thing on you," says a voice close to you. The young rapper angrily takes a swing at the speaker. A large multi-person scuffle then unfolds, during which you feel yourself slide off your wearer's neck and into another unfamiliar pair of hands.\n\n[[Who cares anyway? My dignity is gone.]]

You meander for a moment, then hit the side of the curb where you come to rest, your frame still laying in the street. Frantic thoughts rush through your head:\n\n[[What if another driver isn't looking and runs over me?]]\n[[Was I really better off when I was still attached to the car?]]

The man glances down at where you landed. His foot raised, he is about to angrily kick you into the street, when he pauses. "I'm sure somebody needs this," he says, and picks you up.\n\nHe carries you down the street for a little while, then opens the door to what must unmistakably be his car and throws you into the backseat. He drives up to a small store. A sign that says "Artie's Used Hubcaps" is staked out front. \n\n[[You can't wait to be in a secure spot again.]]

No sooner does this thought go through your mind than a minivan comes around the bend and clips you with its right front wheel.

The man takes you inside. Before you know it, you are hanging on a nail on the wall behind the counter, motionless, only able to look straight ahead at your potential suitors whenever they enter the store. Over the course of several days, you watch miserably as one by one, they walk out with the chump above you, next to you, even below you.\n\nFinally, one day, a fine young gentleman makes his way into the shop and points directly at you. You find yourself being lifted off the wall, then fitted into that rubber prison once more, free from contact by the cantankerous outside world. Your little altercation in the street tells you that outside your little prison, humanity wants nothing to do with you.\n\n[[Start]]

Stunned, the man He bends down and grabs you harshly from the ground. His beady black eyes narrow as he scrutinizes your 28-inch metal frame. "Fucking piece of shit," he exclaims, and tosses you aside roughly. You hit the nearby garbage can and land with a thud at its side.\n\n[[You feel insulted by the man's words.]]\n[[You wonder what else can go wrong.]]

You lay there silently, your pride clearly hurt. After a little while, a young man wearing baggy pants, a backwards cap and an oversized t-shirt catches sight of you while muttering what sound like song lyrics under his breath. "Aw yeah," he says, picking you up and smirking at his reflection in you. This'll be perfect for my image."\n\nSeveral hours later, a long metal chain has been looped through your head, several hundred diamonds have been placed all over your face, and you are observing yourself in a mirror, hanging from the young man's neck.\n\n[[What an improvement!]]\n[[I feel fucking stupid.]]

A young boy walking down the sidewalk catches you in his sights. Shuffling over to where you lie, he scoops you up with two hands and examines you briefly with a grin on his face. "Cool, we needed a home plate," he says, and without a moment's hesitation, turns around and sets off down the opposite end of the road at a brisk pace, whistling whimsically with you in his arms.\n\n[[Cool, I wonder where he's taking me!]]\n

Enthralled, you find yourself careening downhill at full speed! Nothing can stop you now.\n\n[[Except that riverbank straight ahead.]]

You can't.\n\n[[Wait longer.]]

The game finally ends, and the sun sets. The children, all tuckered out and ready for rest, take their leave. You gaze at the props around you used for the other bases - a pizza box, somebody's old boot, and a deflated inner tube - and wonder if someone would come for any of them as well.\n\n[[What to do?]]