Bed Hopping
Copyright© 2023 by Myll Apila
Chapter 5
I decided not to tell Phil and Dex about my possible good fortune. That made me feel guilty, and I compensated by deliberately spending more time with them. Dex had become interested in magic and tried out some simple conjuring tricks on us. For his birthday, Phil received the sequel to the video game and we spent many more hours at his house competitively eviscerating ugly-looking alien invaders.
About six weeks after Dr Wells had sent off the coin, Dad received a phone call from him. Afterwards he approached me with a sombre look. “Dr Wells said that the expert he sent the coin to has been unable to identify it. They want our permission to send it to the world experts on Roman coins, based in Italy. The Italians assure us the coin will be safe, but just in case, it will be insured for a quarter of a million from the moment it leaves the country until its return. Do they have your permission? Dr Wells wants me to call him back.”
I didn’t know what was more surprising, that the coin might be worth far more than Dr Wells’s original estimate, or that Dad was entrusting me to make the decision about something that could be worth a fortune. I had to stop and consider for a few moments. “I think we should give permission. Without authentication, the coin isn’t really worth much, is it! But why are you asking me? You manage the family’s finances.”
“It’s your coin, son. You found it.”
“Still, it’s a big decision. What do you think?”
Dad smiled as though I had just passed some sort of test. “I agree with your reasoning,” he said. “Would you like to call Dr Wells and tell him in person?”
“Much as I’d like to, the museum doesn’t deal with minors. I think you’ll have to be the one to actually give the permission.”
Dad called Dr Wells back and gave permission. At the end of the call he said, “Dr Wells also said that if the coin is valued at anything like the insurance value, the local museum won’t be able to afford it. However the Italians might make an offer for it if it’s rare enough.”
I felt bad about that. I felt the coin belonged in a museum close to where it was found. Perhaps, after valuation and authentication, I could sell the coin to the local museum for whatever it could afford. That was something to bring up in the future.
We told Mum and Janey the news at dinner that evening.
“Great,” said Janey. “I want a pony.”
“Janey,” admonished Mum, “Jon gave you a very nice birthday present using the proceeds of his earlier coin sales, but this coin is his. If the coin’s worth what the Italians are insuring it for, all that money belongs to Jon. For all we know, he might decide to keep it rather than sell it.”
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.