iCaved

I walked into the ATT store and waved a white flag above my head.

"I need an iPhone," I muttered quietly.

"Excuse me," The man said behind the counter leaning in.

I plopped my 1980s, bright blue, cracked-screen, flip-phone on the counter.  "It doesn't work any more," I said.

He led me to the other non-smart phones that he said would be easy to swap out for my broken phone - "No data-plans required," he said loudly, in case I was an 80 year old, techno-phobe with good skin.

"I need an iPhone," I said louder and he immediately took me back to the counter and started typing away.

"I don't want a 5, do they still make 3's?" I asked. 

"I'll go see what we have," He said loudly and walked away probably still wondering just how old I was.

A minute later he came back with an iPhone 4 that was only 99 cents.  It perked my interest.  "It will cost you another $20/a month for the data plan."

I nodded painfully.  "I know," I said.  "Let's just get this over with."

When he started to explain the phone to me, I told him that I had an iPhone years ago.  Within a month, the screen was cracked in two places and there were cookie crumbs embedded in the ear piece.  "I have 3 kids now.  My hands are always full," I said.  "Is there anything in this store that can protect this poor little phone?"

15 minutes later, I walked out of the store with an iPhone that looks like a giant lego.  The cover is big, and bulky and has layers of protection.  It's not pretty, but it's all mine.

"Why didn't you get an iPhone5," my husband asked when I called him from my new iPhone.

"If I still have this phone in 2 years and it's decent shape, then I will be the first in line to get the iPhone 10." I said. I hung up and put my giant lego high on a shelf away from little hands and cookie crumbs.