Gets Fresh as a gift

Keiko reluctantly joined the American Association of Retired Persons, strictly, as she’ll tell you, for the discounts. It was in one of the newsletters that she read an article about Fresh. She dropped a few successful hints to her daughter, Suki, who gave Keiko a year's subscription as a Christmas gift.

Keiko doesn't like computers, so instead she uses the free telephone number to start her membership. By answering some questions from the operator, she completes a learning profile. She lists nursing and rose gardening as expertise and Hawaii, hiking, and photography as interests. She also lists sharks as an interest because her grandson Austin loves them so much. Keiko orders a cell phone. She also signs up for the Wunderkasten service, since it will give things for her to share with Austin. In fact, she requests that the shark box be sent immediately for Austin's upcoming visit. Within a week, she receives her new phone and her first Wunderkast in the mail.

She opens the box to find it was full of things having to do with sharks. There is a small shark figurine, an odd brooch made from a shark's tooth, and what appears to be a pair of completely opaque sunglasses with a strange bump on the frame. She also finds a pamphlet of reading material on sharks, a listing of shark-related books in the Pleasanton public library, upcoming television programs, exhibits in San Francisco museums, and even the types of sharks in the local Monterrey Bay Aquarium and Aquarium of the Bay. She thinks most of it is for Austin, so she puts most of it back in the box. But she likes the brooch and puts it on. She also takes a little time to read the pamphlet.

Taking a walk around the block that evening, Keiko and her husband Yukio meet the Normans, neighbors from down the street. They fall into casual conversation, and Mrs. Norman asks about the brooch. Keiko forgot she was wearing it, but is able to share information about the service, her upcoming visit with her grandson, and much of what she can remember from the pamphlet.

NEXT> Train ride to San Francisco