3 is for happiness

Three: Something having three parts, units, or members.
Hapiness: Characterized by good luck; fortunate.

Bells rang as he opened the door and entered the glass storefront as 90 degree air rushed in attempting to subjugate the air conditioned climate. A grainy radio transmitted the Cubs game, an event transpiring mere blocks and alleys North of the Belmont Asian Emporium. He came in search of bamboo. He had killed his last three plants through neglect, through leaving the plant too close to a frigid window for the duration of an arduous, resented Chicago winter. Good luck tokens and trinkets lined the shelves of the dark store. A cooler contained orange and white orchids as well as other beautiful plants of which he have never heard. The happy go-lucky 50 something Chinese man smiled to the previous customer as she completed her $50 purchase. His aura was refreshing, a business owner who was truly concerned with the well-being and satisfaction of his customers.

"I'd like to purchase three of these," he uttered, nervously fumbling for his hard earned cash. On his last visit nearly one year prior, he had learned the value of purchasing not one but three bamboo plants. The shopkeeper smiled as he realized he was going to make another sale of the product with which he was able to support a living.
"You purchase three lucky bamboo plants, you know what the bamboo means in Chinese," the shopkeeper asked as his complacent yet happy wife wrapped the plants in plastic. He had no idea what bamboo meant in Chinese, all he knew was that the time had come to start taking care of another living thing other than himself. He had heard on some movie or some random Discovery Channel show that one of the steps of over coming addiction was to care for a living thing. The shopkeeper reached into his shelf and pulled out a paper his customer had thrown out in carelesss haste. "Rich plus noble, that equals Bamboo." The young man had no delusions that purchasing the bamboo would make him either rich or noble. He informed the man that he had been in a year prior and purchased three plants that had passed along the previous winter after being left too close to a cold ass window for too long as it's owner puffed away his responsibilties, seeking a HIGHER state of being.

"Ahh you see my friend," replied the man, a smile beaming from cheek to cheek, " three bamboo plants bring hapiness. You buy the bamboo last year and kill it, that means you are not happy."
"He doesn't even know the half of it," thought the young man. And yet the simple words of the shopkeeper resonated with more truth than one could perceive on the surface as being able to be gathered from such a "simple" statement. The kid was far from happy as he was trying to raise the plant. He endured a self induced mental hell, catalysed by an incessant love affair with mary-jane as the only beacon of laughter and a good time. No chores were ever accomplished. His place and his mind and his life were a mountain created from a mole's hill worth of vices. "Hapiness," he contemplated, "such a state could be acheived from taking care of the little things?"

The young man thanked the shopkeeper and his wife with a slight bow and a promise that this time he was going to take care of the plant. This time he was going to proove that he was happy, that he could be entrusted with responsibility, that he could see the path and that he understood the travails which lay ahead.

Mere hours from that moment, a task he had long put off was to be finally carried out. He was about the face his fears, to trust in himself as the only savior from a bloodline which tended to fall through the cracks through vice and self destruction. To some such thoughts were madness, simply insane. Why would anyone even think twice about leaving a place of uncomfortable responsibility. Drunken socialite women were throwing themselves at his feet, everyone wanted to be his friend, and everyone complemented him on characteristics he had long resented. But this was what every twenty something man longed for. This was hip and cool and fun and involved hanging out all hours of the night until the darkness blended with the morning light and the memories of a night just passed dissipated and joined with the dreams of the present until he could not discern between fact and fiction.

"If three is for happiness," he thought to himself as he set on a destiny he was setting with each passing moment, " this is going to be much easier than I've always thought."