Bike is gone

"He will buy it for a hundred dollars" she says. And she also says that he does not speak English. She tells me  many things on an unusually good phone line. She asks what brand the bike is but does not listen to the answer I never give. That was just a lead up to trying to lower the price. Haggling. Over the phone. Over a product that the buyer has not seen, in a language that the buyer does not command. Haggling through an interpreter. I momentarily hate Craigs list and emotionally do not want to sell. But I know that I have no leverage and no reason not to sell. I say yes.
Sure we can meet tomorrow in Washington Square park. Yes yes, I make all the faults and give away everything, even stated that I was relocating in the classified. I have not sold the bike yet but I have sold everything else just to sell it. I am in the lowest and worst position for a salesman leaving tomorrow.

Today, sunshine, in the park, just took the bike for my last ride, walking through the park looking for my buyer. There he is. He speaks English, although broken; we can communicate easily. The only thing in our way is my insecurity.

Then it comes, the question: "What is the lowest price". Today I am strong, I am not backing any further, then I could as well just give it away to my friend. I say a hundred dollars, and explain that I thought 150 was a fair price. He has tried looking on the bike and testing the brakes but all that charade is not meaningful any more. I have decided it is a hundred or nothing.

I walk away, he bikes the same direction, I shout to him: is it working well? He smiles and says yes. It is a sunny afternoon in the village, my last day in NY.