Our Own Light by Logan Sage Adams

Author:Logan Sage Adams [Adams, Logan Sage]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-08-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Floyd

On a Saturday toward the end of June, Floyd and Ollie walked together to the company store. Ollie wanted the two of them to take a train to Charleston, have an adventure. Normally, Floyd would have resisted the urge to travel to the city, mostly because it was too much of a hassle, especially when it came to converting scrip over to United States currency. It was a pain in the rear end to figure out how much you’d need to change over at the company store in order to buy whatever it was you wanted to buy out there.

Complicating matters, the exchange rate wasn’t too good. If a miner was feeling bold (or foolish), he might want to borrow from his future self—to request a loan, of sorts, from his future paycheck, and exchange that money over so that he could spend it in the city. If a fella kept this up, he’d end up in debt. Floyd had seen it happen a few times. Coal companies were probably happy when it did. Miners who owed the company money couldn’t very well leave, could they? Luckily, Floyd had never needed to borrow money from his future self, even to cover necessities, which also happened to folks sometimes. He never borrowed for entertainment purposes neither, even taking it so far as to avoid changing scrip over entirely. He thought it best to stay away from all that. But . . .

Lord help him, how could he say no to spending time with Ollie? If Ollie wanted to explore the city, Floyd supposed he’d have to explore it, too.

Floyd and Ollie approached the counter where Charlie was reading a newspaper.

“Morning, Charlie,” Floyd said. “I need to change some scrip over.”

“You?!” Charlie asked, raising an eyebrow. “Now that’s new.” Floyd prepared himself to receive some sort of lecture, but instead, Charlie held up a finger and walked away toward the windows. After resting his hands on his hips, Charlie looked up like he was searching the sky. For what, Floyd didn’t know. After another few seconds of this, Charlie returned to the counter. “Strange. There ain’t no pigs flying out there.”

Floyd snorted. “You’re worse than Effie.”

Ollie arched an eyebrow. “Jeez, you weren’t exaggerating when you told me you never leave Rock Creek, were you?”

“Nope.” Floyd tossed a little cloth poke onto the counter. “In there’s twenty in scrip. How much is that in dollars?”

Charlie dumped the tin-colored coins out onto the counter to count them.

“Yep, twenty.” He opened the register and proceeded to count out paper bills. “That’ll earn you an even fifteen.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Ollie said in rapid succession. “Floyd, no, keep your scrip. I hadn’t realized you would lose that much money for the exchange. I have plenty to cover both of us.”

Charlie whistled. “Wow, that’s some friend you got there.”

Floyd ignored Charlie’s comment.

“I ain’t taking your money, Ollie.”

“You lose five dollars!” Ollie protested. “I’ve been told that’s nothing to sneeze at.”

Through a brief flash of envy, Floyd had to fight to keep a straight face.

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