Lucky Penny

Gabriel bent down to take the penny off the street, ignoring the old warnings in his mind. “You don’t know where it’s been,” came the voices of his teachers, discouraging kids from picking up coins, feathers, shiny things from the ground. But there was something about this penny, how it sparkled on the cement, that overrode all these voices, and he bento to pick it up. Tthat was the moment everything changed, though Gabriel didn't know it.

Not ten minutes before this, Gabriel was walking down the street, complaining to his friend Charles on the phone. Gabriel had been laid off, and the job hunt was going nowhere. His mood was grey, his clothes were grey, and to top it off, today was a cloudy day. “Don’t worry Gabe,” said Charles, “something’ll come along.”

It was at that moment, just as his mind was processing Charles’ words, that Gabriel saw the penny. If this was a music video, the penny would’ve been the obvious illustration of the lyric. It glinted with a strange light that defied the grey world around it. A sign? A sign! 

Something very strange, yet also massively normal, was happening. As the glint of the penny sliced through his perception, it split the universe in two directions. There were now two Gabriels, although neither was aware of the other. This may sound quite strange to us, but that’s because we are passengers in this reality, and have no idea how the engine works. In truth, this happens every minute of every single day, and is as normal as water flowing downstream. Like Gabriel, we look back and see only the choices that led us here, and not the many others we momentarily considered. 

Gabriel’s mind balanced on the edge of indecision. He was trained to avoid touching things on the street, dirty things, the germs. But this was a sign, and it looked so strangely clean. One mind, two universes. Then, Gabriel made up his mind. And in this universe, his mind said don’t touch it, keep moving. The water forks down the stream, each bubble now in its own river. One mind, one universe, the others off somewhere else. “Yeah, something’ll come,” Gabriel sighed on the phone to Charles, not believing it.

Just then, there came the sound of a splash. Gabriel saw a cascade of mud flung from the ground by a large truck, land all over a woman in a red trench coat across the street. The woman stood frozen in horror, too mortified to move.

“Charles, I’ll call you back-“ Gabriel dashed across the street, and helped the woman away from the curb. “Are you ok?” he asked, trying his best to clean off her trench coat with a handkerchief. 

“I—“ she stammered, “I’m fine- I just don’t know this part of town very well. Oh- my clothes—“ She opened her trench coat, her dress underneath was equally soaked in mud. 

“Hey, I know a guy who owns a thrift store near here, maybe I can get him to hook you up with something, just so you feel better the rest of today.”

Gabriel escorted the embarrassed woman to the thrift store. He asked the owner for a discount on something to wear home, which was compassionately given. To Gabriel’s surprise, the woman insisted on paying in full, and after selecting one of the most expensive outfits in the shop, withdrew $500 cash to pay. She now looked like a million bucks, and introduced herself as Marjorie.

“I insist on taking you to lunch, as thanks for your kindness,” said Marjorie. 

Wow, thought Gabriel, maybe this is my lucky day.

Gabriel had never been to the Ritzy Blitz, and Marjorie treated him to a feast fit for a king. “I seldom meet anyone so considerate," she said, "You know, I’ve been looking for a new personal assistant. Would you be interested?”

Gabriel had to admit, deep inside, he was slightly disappointed this was becoming less of a date and more of a job interview, but the prospect of a new job sounded quite nice in this moment. “Oh, I was just doing what any decent fella would’a done.”

“Such fellas are scarce these days, in my experience. If you're interested, you can start tomorrow.”

“I’ll definitely think about it,” said Gabriel, wiping off his mouth with a napkin. “What were you doing in this part of town anyway? You mentioned you were new here.”

“I was looking for something.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, a prize penny which belonged to my father. It was stolen some time ago, but I heard it was last seen in this area. It’s worth 18 million dollars.”

Gabriel's hand froze holding the napkin against his mouth. That penny! He tried his best to be calm and polite during the rest of the meal, but his mind was now on a single track. After the meal, Gabriel told Marjorie that he would call her with regards the assistant job, and dashed back to the sidewalk. He scoured the ground for hours, searching desperately until nightfall, but he never found it. When the shops started closing, Gabriel sighed, and gave up. On the way home, he called Marjorie, and said he could start as her assistant tomorrow. “Delightful!” she said.

Meanwhile, in another universe, Gabriel plucked the penny up from the sidewalk. He turned it over in his hands with fascination, so absorbed by its strange brightness that he didn’t even hear the massive splashing of mud from the sidewalk by a truck just across the street. It was so clean, so beautiful.

“Hey Gabe, you still there?” came Charles’ voice on the phone.

“Yeah, sorry, I’m still here. Can I call you back?” Gabe felt suddenly elated, and not feel up for interacting with other people right now. He slipped it in his pocket. This is my lucky day, he thought. 

Five minutes later, Gabriel passed a construction site, and he saw a sign: “Help Wanted: Construction Workers." 

“I knew it! My lucky day!” Gabriel thought.

He applied, and the next day he showed up to his new job as a construction worker. The first day was hard, but Gabriel remained elated. At lunch, one of the crew asked him why he was so upbeat. Gabriel explained he’s got luck on his side, and showed the lucky penny, shining like the sun. The crew member’s eyes got momentarily wide, but he said nothing.

Later, after Gabriel clocked out of work, he found himself surrounded by a group of thugs. 

“So you’re the little jerk that stole the penny!” said one of the thugs to Gabriel, “you must be the biggest idiot in the world, don’t you know that penny belongs to the Montana family?” 

“Don’t waste your breath on this moron,” said another thug, “anybody stupid enough to rob the Montanas has gotta be the biggest dope on the planet. Let’s just get the penny!”

The thugs beat up Gabriel, raided his pockets and stole the penny. Before they left, they broke his legs, as a “reminder” not to mess with the Montanas. Gabriel wailed on the sidewalk, aware already that he’d never work construction again. The night settled on the city.

Elsewhere in the multiverse, Gabriel showed up at Marjorie’s mansion, which was decorated on the front gate with a large “M” which Gabriel figured maybe stood for Marjorie. She was delighted to see him, and gave him a new pressed suit to wear. He assisted her with her office tasks and then went with her shopping and doing errands, both chauffeur and personal shopper. For the next few weeks, Gabriel assisted Marjorie. His salary was good, but he cursed himself for passing by the penny, the 18 million, all because of old lessons from school. One day he drove Marjorie to a fancy uptown apartment, and she asked him to accompany her to a meeting. He walked with her through gilded halls, to the office of a large man in a suit smoking a cigar. Some shady looking guys stood on either side of the man’s desk. 

“I’ll keep this brief,” said the large man to Marjorie, “One a’ my guys found your daddy’s trinket,” he held up a shiny penny. Marjorie and Gabriel were shocked. “You can have it, for 50 million bucks!”

Marjorie's shock soon turned into rage, “you dirty rat, Solano! So it was you that stole the penny.”

“Oh, let’s not jump to conclusions, Marje,” said Solano. “let’s just agree that finders keepers, losers pay 50 rocks.” 

“You dirty skunk,” said Marjorie, “you never woulda had the nerve to pull this while my father was alive.”

“Yeah, but your daddy ain’t here. And with this coin, that means I run this town now! The keys to the kingdom. The cops work for me, the banks work for me, even that slimy mayor works for me. You an’ your little two-bit thugs ain’t gonna be allowed to stay much longer, unless you cough up the cash.”

“You dirty, slimy, stinking rat!” raged Marjorie, though she was clearly unable to do anything.

Just then, Gabriel suddenly spoke up, as though he was unable to hold back his words, “It’s a fake! That’s not the real one!”

Everyone in the room looked at Gabriel. 

“How do you know, Gabriel?” Marjorie asked.

“Just look at it— it’s dull,” Gabriel explained, not even sure what he was saying, “it doesn’t amplify the light in the room, its— dirty, it’s been on the ground and in a million hands, it’s just a regular penny.” he turned to Marjorie, “If your father’s penny was as valuable as you say— then it’s really something special. That penny isn’t it.”

“That’s right,” said Marjorie, “I didn’t see it before but you’re right!” she turned to Solano, “you tried to pull a fast one on me, Solano! You’re just the same lowdown bottom-feeding scumbag you always were.”

Solano growled in rage, and threw the phony penny to the floor. “You know that penny rightly belongs to my family, Marjorie. Your father stole it from my father fifty years ago!”

“He won it fair and square in a poker match!” countered Marjorie.

“He cheated in that match! The penny should be mine! Control of this city should be mine!” yelled Solano.

“You’re blowin’ smoke, Solano! It’s rightfully mine. What’s more, it’s still out there, and it’s gonna find its way back to me!” Marjorie added.

“Not if I can help it,” sneered Solano. In the blink of an eye, Solano pulled out a gun and shot Gabriel in the gut. 

Gabriel sank to the floor, clutching his shot side. Marjorie screamed and knelt beside him. Solano took a satisfied puff on his cigar. The room around Gabriel faded, deeper and deeper into darkness, until all was black. 

In another universe, Gabriel lay for 20 minutes on the sidewalk, his legs a gnarled mess, until a kindly elderly couple stumbled on him. An ambulance was called, the police took Gabriel’s testimony, and then Gabriel lay, both legs in casts, in the hospital for several days. On the second day, the elderly couple visited him, and told him they had paid for his hospital bill out of sympathy for what had happened. Gabriel was dimly aware he was unemployed again, all thanks to that cursed penny. Why did destiny just carry him along, Gabriel thought, did he even have a choice in his path? Then a man entered the room, and introduced himself as a lawyer who specializes in workplace injury. Gabriel was technically injured on the construction site, so he might be eligible to sue. What followed was a brief lawsuit in which Gabriel and this lawyer sued the construction company for allowing the mob on its premise, and when it was all said and done, Gabriel got a check for 2 million dollars. 

Gabriel moved into a large mansion on the edge of town. He would have to spend the rest of his days in a wheelchair, but he was able to afford all the help and comforts money could buy.

One day, Gabriel got a knock at the door. His butler introduced a federal agent named Tim Quip. Quip told Gabriel that he was here because he learned Gabriel was briefly in possession of an interesting penny, which was what got him in an altercation with the infamous and secretive Montana crime family. “May I ask where you obtained the penny?” asked agent Quip.

“I found it on the ground, I swear,” said Gabriel, now wishing again, for the first time in months, that he’d never picked it up.

Quip nodded, “the Montana and Solano crime families have been at war for control of the city for decades. The penny is their symbolic emblem of ownership, like a deed. The FBI sent in a secret agent to take the penny and end the feud once and for all, but he somehow lost the penny before he was able to get it back to headquarters. Turns out the penny is very easy to confuse with other pennies.” Quip pulled out a mysterious looking briefcase. “Since you had the penny in your possession, we’d like to know if you could help us identify it, so the proper authorities can take back control of the city, and let law and order be enshrined once more. Here’s all the pennies we’ve recently confiscated from local gangsters.” 

Quip opened the briefcase. Inside there were hundreds of pennies, a sea of shining copper. 

“If you can help us identify the correct penny,” said Quip, “we can end this war once and for all.”

Gabriel looked at the pennies, like a bed of hay. Most people wouldn't know where to begin in telling which one of them was special. But one penny in particular caught Gabriel's eye. All of them were bright and clean but this one- this one sliced through his mind again, just as it did months ago, and suddenly he saw two options in spacetime. This time, however, unlike the millions of other times he’d been through this, he could see both roads clearly. Down one road, he saw himself withdrawing the special penny, the officer taking it, the police force becoming the supreme reigning organization in the city; crime is chased out but the police become gods, the cops elect one of their own as the mayor, the governor, the senate; soon the police are just as bad as any corrupt crime syndicate. Down another road, he saw himself withdrawing a different penny, and he saw only clouds. 

With a confident hand, Gabriel brought forth a penny. "It's this one."

Quip immediately took it from his hand, "Thank you, Gabriel. Your service is much appreciated." Quip placed it in a plastic "evidence" bag, and placed it in his pocket. He then rose to leave.

"Don't you need these other pennies?" asked Gabriel. 

"Not at all," smiled Quip. " You can keep them as you like, or sell them. Perhaps they hold some value. More than once cent, I mean."

Quip left. Gabriel looked down, the true special penny still shone amongst the others. He lifted it up, and turned it in his hand. He imagined himself taking it to Marjorie, getting 18 million dollars on top of his already existing wealth. He also imagined keeping it, and declaring himself king of the city. But then, he thought of a third option. He called in his butler, and asked for him to prepare a fire in the fireplace. When the flames were raging high, Gabriel tossed the coin in. The coin sizzled, sending out tiny fireworks, and then begin to melt. As he watched it dissolve, so many different directions for this city flashed in Gabriel's mind, but all these settled into the vision of peaceful clouds. When the penny was gone, Gabriel sighed and leaned back. Whatever happened next, he had chosen the direction of the river: he’d made a choice, unlike all those million million other times the paths had split before him, and that made all the difference.

In another universe, Gabriel slowly emerged from darkness, and saw the blurry face of Marjorie above him. She smiled with relief seeing he was awake. His ribcage was wrapped with bandages. He was in a shady-looking room with doctors who looked like mad scientists. “You’re safe now,” said Marjorie, “my doctors fixed you up.”

“What happened?” Gabriel asked.

“You saved me from making a terrible mistake, and I’m so grateful,” she put her hand in his. He was reminded of how attractive she was. She continued, “You know, I underestimated you before. I now believe that you’re gonna help me find my father’s penny, at least someday.”

Gabriel’s mind got foggy. He was still returning from a close encounter with death, and it almost felt like he was briefly connecting with his mind in another universe. He saw clouds. He saw an image of a pigeon pecking on the sidewalk, seeing the bright penny and flying with it back to its nest. Up onto the top of the highest building in the city, on a ledge where all the pigeons had their nests because no humans could reach or even see up here, up where only the clouds could see them, the pigeon placed the penny in its nest. These chicks inside these eggs experienced a hundred different possible directions for their pigeon lives, and with their tiny pigeon minds made their choices. This made Gabriel smile, thinking about those baby birds, those peaceful clouds. 

He patted Marjorie’s hand. “Of course I’ll help you find it,” he said, “we’ll start once I’m better. And once I take you out to dinner, as thanks for saving my life.” 

Marjorie giggled, “sounds like my lucky day.”