Is there a free lunch?

Standing at Doolittle Park watching my younger son Danny play baseball, my blood pressure rises slightly when older son Michael turns and asks his mother if she can bring him to the cell phone store. The spike is short as my wife tells him she doesn’t have time.

My problem with the downtown AT&T store is not the employees. They are nice and helpful. My problem is it always costs money, despite what Mary and my sons tell me.
“The phone was free because we got the upgrade,” is a typical response to my question about how much the new phones cost.
I took one economics course in college. In the first class, the professor went to the board and wrote: “There is no free lunch.”
“If you remember nothing else from this class, remember this,” he urged.

Driving home from work about three or four hours after the baseball game, I decide to call home and tell them I’m stopping at the library. Danny answers. No one else his home, he says.
“They are still at the phone store.”
About 10 minutes later, I’m driving by the AT&T store and see Michael sitting in a chair and Mary talking to an employee. It must just be a problem with Michael’s phone, I think. No worries.
I dial my cell phone and instead of getting my wife, I get a recording that tells me to call the service department for more information. I am trying not to panic, but recall that this is the message you get when they are switching over your phone and plan.
The library takes my mind off potential phone problems. Arriving home, I find Mary in the kitchen taking something out of a small box on the counter.
“There is some kind of problem with our phone...”
She cuts me off.
“Here is your new phone,” she tells me, smiling. “It didn’t cost you anything.
“I’m going to get a $50 rebate,” she adds.

To be continued.