Your local electronics store has just started selling time machines, anywhere doors, and invisibility helmets. You can only afford one. Which of these do you buy, and why?
Last time I wrote about this prompt, I chose the anywhere door to go instantly visit my family and friends in Croatia and the US, whom I miss so much. So, it seems that this time I had no choice but to choose the invisibility helmet. It can be useful for my bad days when I’m deeply down in my depression, and I would like to disappear from the face of the earth. But my helmet would need to come with some sound-proof isolation system. When I’m feeling bad, the noises are unbearable. Voices, bumps, the traffic, the kids playing in the square, the repetitive barking of a little dog… and to complete the sound map, a beggar with an accordion playing (badly) the same melody all day long, over and over again, just at my door. To get crazy. The problem with him is that if you don’t give him money he’ll stay playing his eternal melody, and if you give him money, he’ll also stay, waiting for more.
Something similar happened to us once in Barcelona when a man approached our terrace where we and other tourists were having a quiet time in a sunny morning. He began to play castanets and sing “When the Saints Go Marching In”, but instead of saying the words in English he uttered incomprehensible sounds. His voice was horrible and the mock of the song outrageous. Another group of tourist gave him money and he began to sing with renewed energy the same nonsense. The owners of the cafeteria tried to make him leave, without success. So, little by little we all left in search for a quieter place.