A short story I wrote as a child
Shiner The Quarter
Once in the hills of Idaho Springs sat a little piece of
silver named Shiner. He loved sitting on the silver hill, listening to the
stream of water trickling down the mountainside as it flowed into the beautiful
river. Shiner sure loved it there.
One day in
the peaceful mountains came a roaring sound. "What could it be?"
thought Shiner. Then a huge white thing came around the corner.
"What a strange animal," Shiner said to his
cousin, Rocky, who was the last piece of gold on the mountain.
"It must be some more of those animals that mine
for gold. "They'll have a hard time getting rich this time, since I'm the
last piece of gold left on this mountain," said Rocky.
"Look Joe,....SILVER....we've struck it rich
!!!"
"What in the world do they want silver for?"
asked Silver.
"I'm afraid they want it for the same thing they
want gold for," said Rocky.
"What will I be used for?"
"Just about anything," Rocky replied.
"What are those long sharp things on a stick,
Rocky?"
"They're picks. They'll use them to dig us up
!"
"Help! Mom! Dad! They're going to dig us up!"
screamed Shiner. The second after he said that a big pick hit him.
"OOOOOWWWW!!" yelled Shiner. "Help! Help! Help!"
Before he knew it, he was tossed in the big white
animal, that was really a truck, with many other pieces of silver.
"Where are they taking me?" he cried.
"I don't know," said another piece of silver
nearby. "We'll just have to see."
Shiner trembled with fear as they started up the truck.
He nearly crumbled at the thought of being shattered, or whatever horrible
thing these strange animals would do to him. He watched sadly as they went away
from the beautiful mountain that was his home. He had no idea what would happen
next.
After miles and miles of traveling, the truck finally
stopped at a place called the Denver Mint. The people unloaded the pieces of
silver onto a long, thin pice of rubber that brought them into a furnace.
Shiner got very, very, hot. He was almost burning! In a second he had melted
and turned into liquid.
After that he was poured into a little round hole in a
piece of metal. Then another piece of metal came on top of him. Finally he was
cooled and put into a roll of paper with other silver circles just like him. He
had turned into a quarter!
Now he was shipped to a federal bank and put into a dark
dreary safe. Shiner wondered if he was going to spend the rest of his life
there.
After Shiner had been in the safe for days and days, the
door opened with a creeeeeeeak. Shiner and the other quarters were taken out
and carried off by another strange animal.
After a few hours, Shiner opened his eye to see his own
beautiful town, Idaho Springs, Colorado. How lucky could he be. Maybe he was
finally going home. But tears
filled his eyes as they went past the road to his beautiful mountain, where he
had lived the happiest times with Rocky and his mom and dad.
Shortly the big animal stopped. The animals with two
feet lifted Shiner and the other quarters out. They pulled the bags of quarters
into a bank. Then Shiner and some others were taken to a store. The people took
out the rolls of quarters and pulled the paper off. They put the quarters into
a cash register, which to Shiner looked like a monster that was going to eat
him up! But when that didn't happen, he thought it was just another safe that
he would stay in for an endless time.
Shiner was wrong. The cash register rang and he and a
twenty dollar bill was lifted out by a strange people animal. he was put into it's pocket with the bill.
While they were in the pocket, the twenty dollar bill said that he was made
from a tree. He said he had been to many places, but they weren't fun places.
He said that quarters got all the fun because they were the ones who could be
put into slot machines and gumball machines. He just got put into cash
registers and pockets. Shiner was so happy to hear that everything would be all
right and that he would have a good time.
Then Shiner and his new friend were lifted out of the
person's pocket and put into a billfold. They went to sleep.
At around nine o'clock in the morning, Shiner and his
friend, the bill, were put into a purse. Next they were driven to an Arcade.
Shiner heard a boy ask his mom for a quarter. Shiner was picked up by the big
animal and handed to the small one. The boy said that was one of the shiniest
quarters he had ever seen.
When the boy put Shiner into the slot, he rolled down a
little ways and then sprang up into the screen. The only reason he did this was
to have adventure. He sure got it! Shiner was dodging bullets and grenades and
army men. When the game was finally done, Shiner rolled back down with the
other quarters. The game was played many times and it was so loud that Shiner
couldn't get to sleep.
After hundreds of BOOMS and BANGS, another boy put a
quarter in but the game didn't start, so he pushed the coin return. As the
quarter rolled down to the return, Shiner sprang up and said, "No you
don't. I've been in here long enough." Shiner knocked the other quarter
off and rolled down to the coin return himself. The boy picked him up and put
him in his pocket. Shiner was so exhausted he fell right to sleep.
He was awakened again by the boy taking him out of his
pocket and putting him in a pop machine. He rolled and rolled down to a dark
pit. It was cold and lonely and he began to shiver. He stayed there all night.
In the morning he woke up scared half to death. He had
been dreaming about Rocky and his mom and dad sitting on the warm sunlit
mountain. But now he was freezing and he realized he was still in the pop
machine. He sure missed his family.
Someone put in a dollar bill in the machine and Shiner
and another quarter were pushed into the change return. A boy took one of the
quarters and put it into a gumball machine and got some gum, but he put Shiner
back into his pocket.
Shiner arrived at the boy's home and was taken out and
put into a piggy bank with many other quarters. The quarters said "It gets
very loud when the boy shakes us to see how many of us are in here. It also
gets quite annoying when the boy keeps shaking us every day. One day, we hope
that the boy will break the piggy bank and let us out."
Shiner stayed in there many days, and each day he
thought about his mom and dad.
After days and days the boy finally broke the piggy
bank. The bank shattered on the floor and the quarters flew out. The boy was
going to the bank. He took all the quarters and put them in his billfold,
except he put Shiner in his pocket because he was so shiny. The father drove
the boy to the bank. The boy gave all the quarters except Shiner to the banker.
She put them in a counting machine that tells you how much money you have put
in. He had a total of fifteen dollars in quarters. He told the banker that he
wanted it put in with his other money in his savings account.
When the boy and his father were in the car, the boy
asked his dad if they could go for a walk in the mountains. While the two
people were talking, Shiner found a hole in the boy's pocket and was trying to
get out. He soon realized it would do no good. He figured he would fall out and
the boy would just pick him up again, so he lay still.
The boy and his father drove for a few minutes and then
stopped. "Here we are, Shiner Peak," said the boy's father.
"Hey," thought Shiner, "They named a
mountain after me."
He looked through the hole in the boy's pocket with all
the amazement in the world to see that they were climbing his own mountain.
Shiner was so excited he could not keep still as he squeezed through the hole
in the boy's pocket and rolled down yelling, "Mom, Dad, Rocky,....I'M
BACK!"
Shiner stopped rolling right by his mom and dad and
Rocky.
"What happened to you?" asked his mom.
"I turned into a quarter," shouted Shiner.
"It doesn't matter what you turned into," said
Rocky, "We'll always love you no matter what you are. We're just glad
you're finally home!"