“Leftover frozen pizza sound okay?”
“Yum. Yes.” I’m salivating at the thought. “I’m starving.”
“Let’s get something in that stomach of yours to soak up whatever poison you drank today.”
“Dad.” I roll my eyes. “It wasn’t poison. It was gin.” I laugh. “And some vodka.” I squint my eyes trying to remember what else there was. “I think there was some bourbon in there too.”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph….”
“Bless them,” I say with a sigh.
Dad remains quiet after that. Before I know it, I’ve got a plate of pizza in front of me and the largest glass of water I’ve ever seen. “Drink all of that.” He points to the glass. “Then, off to bed with you.”
I hear him mumble something about annoying kids, but I choose to focus on my food. At least for now. Until I remember. “Hey, Dad. Did you throw away that bubble envelope I got a while back?”
“You know I don’t throw those away. They’re expensive.” I mouth the rest of his words as he says, “We can reuse it.”
“We sure can.”
I watch him reach for the drawer nearest the landline telephone. Yes, we still have one of those. No one ever calls us on it, but he insists on keeping one in case all the cell phone towers simultaneously stop working.
He’s so doomsday sometimes.
“Here.” He tosses it onto the table in front of me.
Reaching for it, I hold my breath. I’m not sure why. There’s zero chance he… And then, I spot it. A piece of paper folded into fourths sitting flush against the inside.
With two fingers, I snag the paper and slide it out slowly. I’m not sure I should read it right now. Not in my current inebriated state. But I do anyway. It’s better to do this while I’m still a little drunk. It’ll hurt less. I push the pizza plate away from me and replace it with the note. Unfolding it, I read:
Lou, I hope you’re doing well.
You’re probably wondering how I ended up with your coin. I didn’t steal it, well, not in the traditional sense. That woman, Mona, took it from the house that day. I saw her do it.
“That bitch.”
After I left the house, before we met at my hotel, I tracked her down and made her give it back to me.
I had every intention of returning it to you that night, but I rather liked having a piece of you with me.
“Yeah. Sure,” I mutter aloud. But I keep reading.
When I got home,
“TonotCalifornia. You liar.” Yes. I’m talking to myself.
I had a friend of mine look at it. He’s an expert in coins.
He must be one of those numis-numis-ologists like Bill.
According to him, this is rare and quite valuable. He estimates it to be worth between two thousand and three thousand dollars.
“Say what?” I screech, which causes my dad to jump. I reach for the necklace and pull it out in front of me, but I can’t see it. Not well, anyway. “Dad. This coin I found at the house. Chase, erm, Ryder says it’s worth two grand.”
“Yeah?” Dad’s face lights up. “Too bad you couldn’t find a few more of them at that old dump.”
“Dad.” I sigh. “It wasn’t a dump.”
“I know, honey. Sorry.”
