2025-04-23 - Toss A Coin To The Fountain

Peyton was up late, totally not stealing golf carts. Lies and slander. As it is, she finds hersefl wandering through the calm part of the park. She moves over towards the fountain to glance at the water and the tile below. Her eyes scan for coins and to see the water. "I'm so glad that I already stopped by the bathroom."

That baubling water feature would hit differently. Peyton drops herself down to sit next to it. She's in all black as she reaches to drag her nails across the water. The mirrors of her nails reflecting the water shimmer.

It wasn't the kid who stuffed his face with a hot dog until he literally started to choke that has eaten so much of Zack's afternoon. One of the other guests had done the Heimlich on the kid and saved the day long before he had been able to get there; he'd found the kid scared and in tears, but otherwise fine. No, the thing that had taken up his whole afternoon and almost every shred of what is usually an almost inexhaustible well of patience had been the kid's parents. The boy's mother had been in hysterics, distressed and hyperventilating to the point where she had just fainted as Zack had arrived, and the boy's father had reacted to the stress by puffing up his chest, shouting, and pointing fingers in faces.

All's well that ends well (mostly). A cookie calmed the kid down. The mother eventually came around. Once everyone has been packed off safely to the infirmary the father had apologized. But it was hours of Zack's life that he's never getting back AND he missed lunch. He's leaning against a wall out of the way, now, within sight of the fountain, bolting down a sandwich like he didn't JUST attend to someone who'd been choking, just trying to get some food in him before his radio goes off again.

Some people have deep respect for coins thrown into a wishing pond/water feature/etc. They know there is a wish tied to it. A hope. Something that people hold close to them. It's almost sacred in a way. Peyton is not one of those people.

As she was already looking in the water, she leans forwards to attempt to grab one of the coins over to her. There is a look at Zack as he arrives and she looks him over from top to bottom. However, right now, she's trying to take the coin.

"Huh."

The glint from the fountain catches Zack's attention. At first, he's really not sure what he's looking at. That color definitely doesn't match a quarter or a nickel, and it's not even right for a penny. IS it a coin? He crams the last of his sandwich into his mouth and angles his head, chewing contemplatively. Eventually, curiosity gets the better of him and he approaches. Taking note of Peyton, who he vaguely recognizes, he waves to her, but his mouth is too full of sandwich for him to try to say anything without risking spewing crumbs and egg salad everywhere.

There is a wrinkle of her nose. "Egg salad?" She can smell it, okay? Then she smiles at Zack, who she totally remembers as one can tell from the greeting that is leaving her lips. "Oh, hey.... you..."

Then she looks at the coin and then at him. The coin. Zack. The coin. Zack. Finally, a sigh and she hands it over. "Can you read this? I can't. Also, why do you think it's warm?" If he takes it, or when he takes it, she's going to turn around and attempt to horde all the others ones. She'll start fishing them out unless something or someone stops her.

Zack's smile is abashed when the filling from his sandwich is called out.

"I ain't much of a cook, but my mama still done taught me to boil an egg," he chuckles. "Those ain't new tokens for the arcade, are they?"

He leans over to fish out one of the coins and rolls it over his fingers, causing the burnished surface to flash hypnotically in the light of the afternoon sun.

"Whoa. It's warm."

Peyton's here stealing wishes.

Or hoarding treasure.

Or about to get slapped for her greed.

"Yeah, that's kind of weird right? I'm sure they aren't for the arcade or anything. I mean can you imagine the teenagers just throwing these at each other." She sighs out in that 'teenagers' kind of way. Then a look at him as her eyes narrow. "How old are you?"

"I been a teenaged boy," Zack laughs cheerfully. "There ain't nothin' they won't throw at each other." As an illustration, he flips one of the two coins in his possession artfully across the fountain, such that it lands at the other end with a soft 'plink'. "I got a scar under my hairline from when my cousin nailed me with a pine cone when I was eight. Blood everywhere. If my supervisor asks, I'm too old for that kinda stuff now. I'm twenty-three."

His interest in the coin is limited, although he hefts the one he kept absently in the center of his palm.

"Ain't I see you somewhere? Your face is familiar."

"Oh were you? I was a teenage girl before. We never threw anything but shade." Peyton offers as she watches him make a point by throwing one of the coins. Her eyes follow the coin across the surface and then...

... back to his hand.

Peyton pauses for a moment as this is very clearly a distraction to her. Then she offers. "Of course you know me." Her eyes move to his as if he's just not getting it. "I own the park. Why wouldn't you know me?"

As if.

Then she offers, "Throw it somewhere else. Does it always come back?"

"Y'all girls always had more sense'an we - whoa." Zack stares at the coin when he finds it coming to his hand again. "Oh, awesome. You seein' this?"

Taking Peyton's advice, he flips the coin straight up in the air, before realizing, when it comes back down, that duh. Gravity. Right. He tries flipping it back to the water again. Which ALSO probably isn't what she intended for him to do.

Peyton hmms at this little coin trick. She will toss it towards the ground and then put her hand flat to see if it returns to her. "I am rather intelligent. I'm glad you see the superior and modest mindset that I have."

Zack laughs, good natured, at Peyton's statement. Taking it, apparently, for hyperbole.

"Say, that's real funny." His grin is a little bit crooked, and lights the golden hazel of his eyes. "Don't this beat all? You got any idea how they're doin' this?"

Her instinct is to experiment. His is to see if he can leverage the returning effect to do any neat tricks. He throws both his coins high up in quick succession to see if he can get a juggling effect going.

Peyton looks at Zack and then her large coin boom-a-rang. She tries to toss all of them up to see if she can manage juggling. Pro tip: She can't juggle. Then she offers. "I don't know how a lot of things around here do what they do. However, what do you think we could use a large coin that comes back when tossed away?"

"It's too bad they too big to fit in the vending machines. This'd beat the heck outta blanks."

Zack's attention span isn't long enough for him to be willing to do fake juggling forever, and he eventually thinks to look at one of the coins, dropping the other into his pocket.

"What language d'you think this is?" He's JUST noticed the writing she already asked him about.

There is a moment as the coins come back that Peyton's smile falters. It's as if she just realized something and doesn't seem to enjoy that realization. She looks over her person and then she lifts one of the coins out. She walks over to the fountain and sets the coin down on the ledge.

"I think I just fucked up."

She sort of says this to herself as well as to Zack.

Zack lowers the coin in his hand, and looks over at Peyton, his smile fading into a sympathetic sort of concern. He doesn't know what there is to be worried about, but SHE looks worried.

"Hey, you okay over there?"

When the coin returns, Peyton nods her head a bit to this. "Had to pick up ten of them didn't you, Peyton? Couldn't have just had one. Nope. You had to pick up ten large coins."

She is talking to herself. A breath is taken as she nods her head again and runs her tongue behind her lips but across the front of her top teeth. Then she turns to look at Zack. "I can't read the language. Also, if you haven't noticed yet. You can't get the coins off of you now."

No, Zack hadn't noticed that. He sets the coin he was holding down, and then watches it pop back into his hand.

"Huh. How 'bout that. Guess they really like us." He sounds like he's still processing the puzzle, not really all that alarmed, yet. Of course, he also only has two of the coins to worry about. "You don't think we could just leave the park and put 'em down?"

Peyton considers that for a moment. "You know, we should experiment with that at some point. If not, I've just gained a lot of weight without getting to eat the good food to go with it." She considers and starts to flip the coin over in her hand. She tucks the others on her where ever she can. Her pockets, her shoes, her bra. If it will hold one she will tuck it.

Then she pulls out her phone and tries to pull up google translate. She tries to put the camera on one of the coins to see if it will translate for her.

"Aw, you don't got to worry 'bout the weight." Zack sounds like he's trying to be reassuring as he sits down next to Peyton so he can crane his head to look over her shoulder at her phone.

The phone is frowned at as she shows it to him. There are no results. "Alright. So let's break down what we have going on. I wanted the coins. I got the coins. Now I can't put them down." She looks at Zack, "I'm pretty sure this is exactly how I found myself in a relationship." A smirk before she hmms. "The coin returns pretty instantly."

"Do you think we are being punked by... punked means a practical joke played.." Young'uns. ".. by someone? If I had the power to do it, I'd totally do it."

"I'll bet my buddy Percy could translate these, even if Google don't know what they say," Zack suggests. "He's a teacher."

He teaches high school. But Zack seems to have, nevertheless, invested him with omniscience.

His expression spreads into a grin, at the prospect that this could be a prank.

"D'you think it could be? Seems like there's someone doin' pretty much every other weird thing under the sun, don't there? Man, that'd be a heck of a trick. I wouldn't even be mad."

He pushes the artful tangle of his hair out of his eyes and looks around, to see if there's anyone standing behind a tree or something, snickering.

Peyton looks at one of the coins. She has ten. She has a few to play with. She nods her head. "We will definitely want to see what it says." She keeps the coin in her hand and puts her hand on the bottom of the water feature. Where she found them. She releases when her hand is still underwater and then lifts her hand out.

She waits to see if it stays in the water or not.

Zack looks down into the fountain when Peyton deposits her coin there, although he's more interested in scanning the rest of the fountain for more coins.

"Say, that was real smart of you, gathering up all them coins. It might be real bad if a tourist or someone ended up stuck with one. I didn't even think of that."

"Mother of a bald cat."

Peyton offers as she looks at the coin in her hand. There is a look at Zack saying that to her. She just stares at him. Then she slowly looks behind her and then back to him. "I was taking them so I could sell them. I was hoping to cash in."

"Sell them where?" Zack angles his head, like a confused puppy. "You think they really worth something? This ain't gold or nothin'."

Peyton suppresses her first response to that.

"Well I didn't work that out yet. Facebook Marketplace? So how do you think that the people that put them there got them in the water?"

"I cain't say I know," Zack admits. "I ain't really one of them magic studies people. I guess they coulda appeared there? It wouldn't be as weird as some of the other stuff I seen."

He gives the fountain one last look.

"Listen, I got to be on shift for another hour, so I cain't leave the park 'till then. If you want, we could go this evening to see if leaving the park'll let us get rid of the coins."

Oh right! She works there now. Peyton considers. "I mean we should keep one regardless to have it studied. What if they disappear if it leaves the island." She looks at the coin. "Hey, can you hop back in the water for me?" Weirder things have happened. She does nod though. "I suppose we could try later. You should bring snacks."

"I got a protein bar in my bag," Zack offers, missing the point of bringing snacks later.

He stares at the coin in Peyton's hand to see if it responds to her command.

Peyton takes pictures of the coin front and back. She could probably make a replica from her photos before she nods to Zack. "Let's go, but if they disappear. I want to see if they come back to this fountain. Maybe it's the fountain. I don't know why it's warm. That also implies something. They would make great hand warmers in the winter."

She considers a moment longer. "If it stays with us and we can set it down, we should put it somewhere we know where they are." She pats herself down. "Do you have one of those location chips? I think I have a tile on my keys because Sneak takes them all the time. Maybe we should put a tile on one in case it disappears."

There is a pause as she considers the warm coin for a moment and the water. She tries one more thing before she will try to toss one of the coins to the water. "I wish that I had a year of rent."

"A tile?" Zack clearly doesn't know what Peyton is talking about. "What, like from a bathroom? I ain't got nothin' like that. How 'bout I wait here by the fountain? That way, if they reappear here, we'll know right away, and ain't no chance of someone picking them up. You got your phone on you?"

Peyton will deny this reaction if anyone asks later. She jumps up and down as it goes into the water. "They are wishing coins, ... guy." She still doesn't remember Zack's name. "I was like why would they be in the fountain? They would be tossed. So now, we can make wished. Although..."

She looks at him.

"This could go sideways very quickly and it doesn't mean we'll get it."

Zack's eyes get very, very big as the coin vanishes. He looks at Peyton, really openly worried now.

"Aw, heck naw. What'd you do that for? What if it's one of them monkey's paw things?"

Peyton considers this for a moment and then looks at him and her hand comes out. "Are you not going to wish? Fuck it. If we go all monkey paw, I still get the things. Think about it. It's going to be pretty awesome. Don't you want to try to wish on it? I could have a year of rent right now."

"Oh no." Zack shakes his head slowly. "I seen too many of them scary movies. You can have the coin you gave me back, but I ain't sure I'd be doin' you a favor. I think you're right that at least one of 'em should have someone look at it. I'll walk it over after work."

Peyton grins over at him. Then she starts to toss her other nine coins in the water. She speaks out the wishes, "(2)I wish for a pencil that brings to reality anything that I draw. (3) I wish for unlimited money. (4)I wish for a bag to hold anything of any size and weight, but remains lightweight. (5) I wish for the ability to learn all magic. (6)I wish for a journal that will write out the future. (7)I wish for earbuds that when shared will allow telepathy between the two people. (8)I wish for all the wishes and magic that I have to remain even when I'm off the islands. (9) I wish for a tarot deck when asked a question will give a true answer (10) I wish for a pair of shoes that when worn will allow one to walk walls and ceilings. (11) I wish a necklace that will allow the wearer to walk through walls."