Chapter 51

June 10, 1979

Happy to be ready to leave, Benny slammed the trunk of his car shut. He had finished packing for his trip to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area where he was going to camp for the next seven days. He had been planning to start this trip back on June 1, but the weather forecast had predicted rain for the next day. He figured he’d put it off for a day or two until the weather cleared. It was a fortunate decision since the weather had been terrible since then and he would have been miserable sitting in a tent through the rainstorms.

Equally unhappy about the rain, Tim had been climbing the walls as well. He had planned to start replacing the exteriors on the last four houses he had to restore. He had finished the other houses. If he hadn’t rearranged his work program so that he could clear out the appliances and fixtures in the kitchen, he would have been left with nothing to do for the last ten days. He’d cleared out the kitchens and bathrooms in all four places. The carpet and floor tile had been removed. The light fixtures had been taken out.

“I’m heading out.”

“Enjoy yourself.”

“I will.”

“I’ll be out Saturday,” Tim said.

“Bring some steaks,” Benny said.

“I will.”

Benny climbed in his car and headed out. Tim watched him go wishing that he could go with him, but that was impossible. He had to work his tail off if he was going to finish the four houses before the end of August. At last, the weather forecast had the next few days clear and he could start tearing down the exteriors tomorrow. He had hired a second crew so he expected things to move right along. Even with two crews it was going to be tight getting everything done on schedule.

Tim went over to his driveway and climbed into his Jeep. He had plans for that evening and wanted to get everything at the house ready for the rest of the week. He was expecting to work from sunrise to sunset for the next month. First stop, the grocery store for food and beverages for the week.

At the store, he grabbed a cart and started that meandering trip through the myriad aisles of the grocery store. He was following a woman who was smoking a cigarette while shopping. It reminded him of just how different things were today from the time when he died. Even the cashiers smoked while ringing up the purchases.

On one of the aisle a stock boy was restocking one of the shelves. Tim paused to watch him work only because that was a sight that seemed to have vanished or become hidden somehow. The stock boy pulled out his box cutter and cut the top off of the box of canned items. With the deftness that came from practice, he retracted the blade and put it back in his back pocket. He then picked up the self inking price stamper and set the price on it. He then stamped the price on the top of every can, covering the whole case in about twenty seconds. Tim couldn’t remember when he last saw one of those self inking price stamps. The kid then placed the items on the shelf almost faster than the eye could follow. He was immediately opening the next box with his box cutter.

Tim picked up a can that was in his shopping cart and looked at the price stamped on the top of it. That was the price of the product, not something that a computer rang up. That was another major difference between times. There was no computer reading a product code and retrieving a price. It was marked on the product. Even if it had been marked wrong, that was the price. The cashiers remembered the prices of goods and could ring them up without looking at the prices stamped on the package. A good cashier could clear out a basket of groceries faster than one using the scanner in 2020.

Pulling himself away from Memory Lane, Tim continued with his shopping. For some reason, this store had the frozen food section in the middle of the store. Since he didn’t want his goods to melt before he finished shopping he always skipped that aisle and returned to it, just before leaving. He skipped the aisle and upon turning onto the next aisle he found he was looking at a couple, the man looked very familiar to him. It took him a moment to recognize the guy. He smiled knowing that he was going to make Benny very happy.

Tim dug out his wallet and opened it. He removed the small envelope that he kept there for opportunities like this. he put the wallet in his back pocket. He opened the envelope and dumped out the two coins. He put the envelope in his shirt pocket.

“Excuse me for interrupting your shopping, but I have an important message to deliver to you.”

“Are you sure that you have the right person?” the man asked somewhat confused.

“You are Bobby Joe Mills, aren’t you?”

“That’s my name.”

“Then I’ve got the right person.” Holding up a quarter, Tim asked, “Do you know what this is?”

“Yes. It’s a quarter.”

“Very good,” Tim said with a smile. He held up a different quarter and asked, “Do you know what this is?”

“It’s another quarter.”

“Wrong!”

“Are you crazy? It’s a quarter.”

“No. It looks like a quarter, but it isn’t. Well, it is, but it isn’t. It is silver and at the current price of silver, it is worth $1.50. Think about it. This thing that looks like a twenty-five cent piece, and even has quarter dollar written on the backside is actually worth more than a dollar.”

“Are you crazy? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“Back when silver was $1.20 an ounce, this coin was worth twenty-five cents. That was way back in 1964. That was the last year they made quarters out of silver. Today, silver is $8.50 an ounce and that makes this coin worth $1.50.”

His wife turned to Bobby Joe and asked, “Is he right?”

“I’ve got no idea. I didn’t know silver was $8.50 an ounce. I thought it was $4.00.”

Tim said, “Let me finish my message and I’ll let you get back to your shopping.”

“Okay,” Bobby Joe said.

“There’s a lot of coins in circulation that were minted before 1965. In fact, about one out of five or six quarters that’s in circulation right now is silver. What that means is that you can go to the bank with a ten dollar bill and exchange it for a roll of quarters. There will about six silver quarters in each roll. Those six quarters will be worth about $9.00. You’ll still have $8.50 worth of quarters left in the roll. You put six quarters that aren’t silver, back in the roll, and you take it back to the bank. Do that a couple of times and you’ll have a bunch of quarters that are worth a lot more than a quarter.

“Go through your change jar. Separate out all of the quarters made before 1965. It’s real easy and it won’t take you long to do it. When you look at a silver coin and a modern coin, you’ll see that they have a very different sheen to them.”

Tim held up the two coins side by side. Unable to control their curiosity, Bobby Joe and his wife bent over to look at them.

“You’re right. They do look different,” Bobby Joe’s wife said.

“I know that you’ll be tempted to go out, find a bunch of silver coins, and then sell them immediately. Don’t. The time isn’t right yet. First, people aren’t buying silver coins for the silver value. Second, they won’t give you a fair price if they are buying them for their silver content. The time will come when you’ll get the full melt value for those coins less a commission fee and that is the time to sell.”

“Is this legal?”

“Yes. It is very legal.”

“It sounds illegal. You swap a dollar bill for four silvers and then sell the four quarters for six dollars. It just doesn’t sound right.”

“It’s no different than finding a rare coin in your pocket change and selling the coin to a coin collector. In this case, the value comes from what the coin is made of rather than when and where it was minted.”

“That makes sense.”

“Another thing ... Quarters aren’t the only coins that used to be minted in silver. Dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollars were all minted in silver. They are all worth more for their silver content than for their face value, although some of the older ones are worth more as collectables than for their silver content.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Bobby Joe asked. He still didn’t recognize Tim. Here was a complete stranger telling him how to get rich.

“You were kind to my friend when he was reveling in his world of ideas one night at the library after it had closed. So few people understand geniuses like my friend.”

“I remember you! You’re the friend of that super smart guy.”

“He’s not the only one you’ve helped. I heard that you helped talk someone out of doing something very bad to themselves during finals time.”

“He was just a confused kid.”

“Who happened to be brilliant.”

“How do you know that?”

“Benny told me about a kid in his Chemistry class. It seems that a very young man was having a hard time dealing with getting an A-minus in History.”

Bobby Joe shook his head and said, “He’s a very smart kid. Sixteen years old and in college. He got one bad grade on a history test. It wasn’t the end of world, but it really got to him. He just needed someone to remind him that no one expected him to be perfect.”

“You may not be aware of this, but that is sometimes what a guardian does. He keeps people from doing stupid things.”

Tim pulled out one of his business cards and handed it to Bobby Joe.

“In case you lost the last one I gave you. If you ever have a problem, give me a call and I will let Benny know. He’s very good at solving problems.”

“Thanks a lot,” Bobby Joe said looking down at the card.

“I better finish shopping. I’ve got a lot to do today and I need to get on with it.”

“Have a nice day,” Bobby Joe said.

“One last thing, I’ll let you know when is the best time to sell your silver. I’ll leave a message for you at the campus police station.”

Tim continued his shopping pleased that he had been able to do something for Bobby Joe. He figured that the guy would be collecting silver coins from every place that he could. Maybe he’d get a couple thousand dollars worth. It could be a very good thing for him.

Bobby Joe’s wife watched Tim push his cart around the corner of aisle. She turned to her husband and asked, “Did you really save someone from hurting himself?”

“It’s my job.”

“No, it’s not.”

“They’re just kids and sometimes they get confused. I just reminded him that’s impossible to be perfect. That’s all.”

His wife smiled at him as she said, “My hero.”

“Ah, don’t be that way.”

“Let’s go home and count our quarters,” she said hugging his arm.

“Don’t forget the dimes.”

“Never.”

Tim returned the two quarters to the envelope and stashed it in his wallet where it would be safe until he needed them again. Benny was right. Sometimes kindness needed to be returned, or at least paid in full. He finished his shopping and paid for his groceries. He drove home feeling pretty good.

After putting away his groceries, he put a load of laundry in the washing machine. He did half his laundry every week since there usually wasn’t enough from one week to make a full load of one set of separates. He had enough clothes to last two weeks. This week he’d do two loads: pants and socks, then sheets. Next week it would be shirts, then towels and underwear.

While the pants and socks were washing, he would mow the lawn. He had just started the lawn mower when he heard another lawn mower start up. He looked across the street to see Sandra was starting their lawn mower. Cathy was starting the edger. They waved to each other from across the street. Tim had four lawns to mow, his two and Benny’s two. Sandra had two lawns to mow, hers and Cathy’s.

They all went to work at the same time. Tim started with Benny’s lawn. He pushed the lawnmower around phasing out while thinking about life. At this time in his life during his first pass, he was married to Joyce. Without a doubt, she was the best fuck in the world. She was also the worst thing to ever happen to him. Now, he wasn’t married. In fact, it looked like marriage would probably be more than four years away based on how things were going with Lily.

It had been about this time when he had finally landed a job that paid halfway decent. It looked like things were improving, but she had shown up high on drugs and slapped his boss while calling her a slut. He lost job right after the police hauled Joyce off to jail. He lost a paycheck and had to pay bail. It was not a good day in the life of Tim. It wasn’t even the worst of his days with Joyce. That was just the beginning.