The Purple Rocket Podcast presents Life. Episode 1, Dollar Billy.

The main. The Main Street Arcade, a rundown garage where kids go to blow all their money in one sitting.

Century old arcades line the walls like statues in a museum.

On any given day it was full of kids with numb expressions that stared into flashing into flashing lights.

The place smelled like old carpet and popcorn and the sounds of digital pings, wongs, and zaps echoed

around the corners.

A chubby toddler cried his eyes out on one of those old penny horses that bounced.

It had stopped and the kid's mom had either run out of money or wasn't about to watch him bob up and down for another 20 minutes.

Next to them, a group of kids huddled around

Smithy, a junior hire who had mastered the game of Bowsieousa. The kids shouted and

clapped as he set a new record, 520,000 points.

And one Arcade over from the celebration was Billy.

Billy stood quietly at his favorite game, Batowatt a Dingdong's five. He dug into his pocket and fetched a quarter.

The coin dropped into the arcade in the towering box hummed to life. A synthesized theme song was followed by an onslaught of pixelated bats that flew across

the screen. Billy frantically jerked the joystick firing a spray of twinkies at the creatures and

ending them in a creamy splatter.

Before he knew it, a bat swooped down and ended his last life.

Game over!

Billy dug into his pocket for another quarter, but instead pulled out Lint in a Starburst wrapper.

You've got to be kidding me, he thought. We just barely got here.

What's wrong, Billy?

Ran out of Twinkies?

...