The Penny Pincher

THE PENNY PINCHER

When J woke up this morning, he found himself lacking the effort to get up out of bed. He lacked the courage to face the world this morning. He knew everything that was going to happen today, he would wake up, after turning off the alarm four times before deciding to get up. He will shower, brush his teeth, brush his hair, and walk Diamond & Pebbles down to pee in front of the building where he lived. 42nd and 3rd ave. The heart of the city, and yet he will have to travel across the bridge to his worksite, so he would put on his jumpsuit, grab a pre-made sandwich he would make the previous morning, and head out to work.

By the time he got to work, the city had become alive, the honking and yelling, the bikes and the screaming, and always without missing a beat, J would stand before the front gates, look at his bank account, and go into work. $275.89 in his checking, no savings. He had just enough to take the bus to and from work, head down to the bagel shop for lunch and order bacon and eggs, pay for his daily subscriptions, until his next paycheck at the end of the week.

He placed his hard hat on and was immersed in the smell. For the last twenty eight years, J had dedicated his time to work for the City’s Sanitary Department, where he prided himself for not missing a single day of work, while only being late only once. He never discusses that day with the rest of the guys when they mock him for it. He has made a firm determination of having a perfect record for his 30th year retirement plan. The chairman has confided in him that if he were to do so, the company would pay him 100 pennies, in today’s is about $100,000.

After the depletion of copper, and the reformation of the penny during the 2087 financial crash, penny became one of the most sought out commodities in our current era. It is known that only the elites knew these changes were going to happen, hence they collected as many of them as possible, melted them and sold them back to the market for a hefty profit. Those who were poor, began to look between the couches, the crevices, between car seats and many went as far as exploring the old underground train stations.

J began his shift, he turned on many of the self driving trucks to move garbage from one warehouse to the other. He gave commands to some of his workers and everyone was on the move. Between the 8 of them, they successfully were able to move 5 tons of garbage everyday. Most of the work was done by the machine, but coordinating them is the most difficult part. Without them the machines would be unable to know when to stop.

After the first six hours were gone, the hub blew the whistle and everyone knew it was time for lunch. J had been looking forward to this, Lacia invited him to eat and a drink, she works on the other side of the facility, and he noticed she fancied him. Before he reached the exit, the guys were in front of him, Mike was laughing while Joe was cheating on him, we all knew they were a couple, but refused to admit it. Jake and Hensley stood quiet, while Mark and Jorge were getting scanned.

“Where’s Dave?” J asked,

“Apparently called out, that's ten less pennies he is going to get for his retirement account, what a fool!” said Mike laughing, and they all cheered on.

That was a foolish move, J thought. No one in their right mind would take a day off on a city job. It's unreasonable, whatever the reason would cost you long term thousands of dollars.

I’ll ask him when he comes back tomorrow. Maybe he was able to get a better job somewhere else. J thought.

Right when it was his turn to get scanned, the bell rang. An obnoxious loud bell that sat on top of the hud, we all knew what it meant, someone had broken in. The guys began to laugh, Mike was on the floor laughing so hard. They knew what was clear to J, since he was the last person in his hub, he had to go out and take care of the issue. It could be anything, a stray animal, one of the machines was turned on by one of the local kids, but whatever the problem, J had to go and take care of it.

What a day, J thought, Lacia is probably going to be mad this time.

J turned around and headed to the warehouse, his first responsibility is to check the cameras to make sure what the issue is. Once he walked in, he knew what it was. He looked at camera 5 and saw a man standing in a pile of garbage digging through all of the ruble. The man was dressed in raggedy clothes, carried a backpack and seemed to have a dog with him as well.

I hope this doesn’t become complicated, J thought.

He proceeded to go by pillar 5, he grabbed the revolver from the locked self and headed towards the mysterious man. “Oi! Mate! You looking for something” J yelled while standing in an adjacent pile of rubble. The man stood up and turned around, he had a half eaten burger and held a black book in his left hand. He began to speak in sign language and a small Yorkshire began to bark.

He is probably harmless, J told himself,

He proceeded to walk over to him, due to the mass migration from the west, an overwhelming amount of people began to move to the cities again, part of the training curriculum, the Department of Sanitation would encourage and even pay for its employees to learn new languages. J already spoke English and Spanish. He was deceived to learn Burmese, Japanese, and Korean, as a side hustle, he acquired the sign language as well.

As he approached the man, he turned on his dog whistle and the Yorkshire began to calm down. J scratched the back of its ear and picked it up. He turned towards the man and began to perform signes,

“What are you doing here?” J asked,

“I’m looking for someone.” the man signed,

“Who?” J replied.

“I believe it’s you.” the man signed, and smiled.

The man showed J the book he held in his hand, and there he saw the letters, and shapes, hexagrams and diagrams, letters in brail, Arabic, and many different more languages and symbols he had never seen before. J stared at it confused, he looked up at the man who was still standing there smiling.

“Why me?” J signed,

“I had a dream about you, I was told to meet you here today, at this very moment, with that specific dog, I was told to give you this book. I have been dreading this day for so long, I hope you find and answer for it. This is yours.” finished the man, while handing over the book, and turned away.

The man went back to the gates he seemed to have crossed over from, and began to turn back to the woods that surrounded the compound. J was left watching him run until he disappeared into the woods, the alarm rang again meaning the problem was resolved. J looked down at the book and the small dog he held in his hands. Confused and perplexed and he turned around and began to walk to the exit, he turned off the dog whistle and the and began to laugh,

“Well I guess you’ll be another addition to the family, Diamond and Pebbles will love having you” he told the Yorkshire with a smile and headed back out to the hub.

The Penny Pincher

Part II

J continued to go to work during the next several days, the small dog had adopted well to the rest of the dogs, and he decided to call her manly, since he never got the man’s name, nor did he state what was its name. He began to study, and try to decipher the old black book. But the more he tried to understand it the less it made sense. He recognizes that they seem to be tools to find something, the book had many arrows and side notes, it almost seems like it was passed down to many many people and each one of them placed their own work into it.

Maybe it should be my turn, J thought going back to sleep after a long day of work.

It all started in his living room, he was standing there in pure darkness and noticed it was raining and there was a storm outside. A man knocked on the door and opened it. It was the man J had seen a few days ago. The man laughed and for the first time spoke,

“Are you ready!” the man said,

“Yes” J replied without being able to stop himself.

They both began to float and go through the apartments next door, the man grabbed J by the hand and took him in this journey across the world, there J saw a man, a different man holding the book, and there where he stood, he began to bury a chest, and then began to write on the book. Then with lightning speed, J was brought in front of a woman who held the book, she too buried the chest and began to write on it. And it was so until J saw every single signature, handwriting, shape and diagram in the book. Until it stopped in front of the man J stood next to. And they both stared and the raggedy old man buried the same chest where he stood in the pile of ruble back at the job site.

That’s when he woke up. Sweating and anxious, J found himself next to all three dogs laying next to him on the couch. He got up, and followed his routine. He got up, showered, and walked all three dogs. But there was something different about today. It was raining and cold, but he found himself with the will to go back to work. He hasn’t felt this feeling since he first began his job. But today, he began to look forward to the day.

Once he arrived at the compound, he looked at his bank account, $324.76. He began to turn on the machines and began to work. During lunch time, he ate alone and thought about the dream. He noticed there was a man standing across the bagel shop and it reminded him of the raggedy man. And J was reminded imminently of the dream. And began to recall the details and he remembered that the old man had buried something in the ruble.

He paused.

For a moment, the world stopped and J was able to think clearly, and right there he decided he would investigate the place where he had met the man.

He headed back to work and once he was scanned, he finished his last hours of work. He told the guys he would stay extra hours today, they all laughed at him and left. J was left alone in the compound and began to walk towards the 5th pillar, he walked straight to the ruble where the man was standing that day, he looked around and began to move garbage as much as he could. But there, he saw the chest, buried deep in dirt and shit.

When J was able to take it out, he gave the lock a kick and opened it. There he saw the insides of the chest. Pennies. Hundreds and hundreds of pennies, he wept and began to carry the heavy chest out of the facility. He went back home and opened the back of the black book. He took a small needle and punctured his thumb and pressed hard on the book. He left his mark on it and thought.

“I wonder who will be next”

The End.