There was no card.
Arthur looked at the box on his screen, the eagle still soaring silently over those fake mountains. He thought of the $60 he’d already spent. He thought of the Super Bowl next month. He thought of the $120 for a year—less than one month of his current cable bill.
He closed the wallet. He unplugged the Eagle TV Box. He placed it back in its brown cardboard coffin, walked to the kitchen, and dropped it into the recycling bin. The thud was final.
Now, sitting in his worn recliner, Arthur plugged the small black box into his TV. The screen flickered to life, displaying a lush, if slightly pixelated, screensaver of an eagle soaring over mountains. The interface was clunky but promising. He clicked on “Live TV.”