This was one of two stories I’ve written that begin “Once upon a time.” (I promise never to do it again.) It tells the tale of the private life of appliances as they dream of a savior, and was published in the Spring 1989 issue of 2 AM magazine.
It had a somewhat difficult marketing history. Many of the editors to whom I’d sent it rejected it by telling me that Tom Disch had done something similar with his story “The Brave Little Toaster,” acting as if 1) I did not already know that, and 2) that the world could not possibly have room in it for two stories that centered on intelligent electronic devices.
As it turned out, the editor of 2 AM wasn’t the only one who appreciated “The Wandering Jukebox,” as the story was reprinted in Brian Stableford’s anthology Tales of the Wandering Jew.