#Fridayflash: Loose Change

The pickax slammed into the rock with an echoing clank that seemed loud even through Frank's industrial strength earplugs. Sam worked next to him, shoulders rolling like pistons, striking the stone in an alternating rhythm to Frank's efforts. They'd been a team long enough to work with machine-like precision, anticipating the other's next move.

Sam's strike sent a shower of gold coins toppling out of the stone like they'd hit the jackpot in a casino. Only these coins contained extremite, the radioactive mineral that had changed their lives. It powered everything, was pollution free, and had saved the world from its reliance on petroleum. Only now, everyone relied on extremite.

Frank stopped digging and leaned his axe up against the wall of the shaft. He reached for his shovel to move the bounty into their cart. But he paused to remove his earplugs when he saw Sam frozen in place, staring longingly at the pile.

"Have you ever wanted to hold one in your hand?"  Sam said, removing his earplugs. "Just once, just to feel the weight of it against your palm."

"Nah. Why do that to yourself? It's no good wanting what you can't have."

"I guess. But you've had it Frank. You were raised by the educated, hoity-toity, meat eaters up-top. How can you keep your hands off of it? Don't you ever consider just slipping one into your pocket?   One coin on the black market and we could be free of this gig."

"Or you could get caught and be free of your head."  Frank nudged a coin with the toe of his boot. On one side was the imprint of a chinless, bald man with oversized black eyes and a tiny nose and mouth. On the back was a symbol nobody had translated yet. Frank knew there were plenty of scholars who had died trying. Scholars like his parents who had attempted to preserve the very ruins he and Sam were destroying, got too close and disappeared without a trace.

"Let's get back to work," Frank said. Sam sunk his shovel into the stack of coins at their feet, while Frank used his pick to pry open the hole a little farther, doubling their bounty. When the cavity in the rock was empty, they could see the petroglyph behind it. But thanks to hours of practice at his mother's side, only Frank could read it.

As he shoveled, he translated. This one was a hero story. Centuries ago, a man discovered that the people of the sky had sent the coins to the people of the Earth. Although the coins were useful, the more the Earth people relied on them the greater price the Sky people demanded in return. Soon, every man, woman, and child worked for nothing but more coins. The hero convinced his people to bury all of their coins and to return to the old ways. Foiled, the sky people departed for their own world. The man was made king for his wisdom, and the people lived out their days working the land by hand.

Frank especially enjoyed the carving of the hero standing atop the pyramid of buried coins, fists raised towards the sky.  The crown on his head seemed to glint from the dusty canvass. His people bowed at his feet.

"I wonder what it says," Sam said, replacing his earplugs and picking up his ax.



Frank shrugged in Sam's direction. He wielded his ax at the carved stone wall, and became the only man in the world to know the truth.





Thanks for reading!  Don't forget to enter The Soulkeepers Launch Contest if you haven't already. Thanks.