Four Letter Words - 5. PAWN

I held the garbage bag firmly in my hand as I approached the house. I stood in front of the front door and calmly turned the doorknob. It was locked, naturally.

“They’re on vacation, of course.”

I patted my pockets down, realizing I didn’t bring my spare key with me.

“Oh yeah.”

In a moment of recollection, I reached into the mailbox and took out the spare key. Quietly I slipped inside.

First I went to the front room, but there didn’t appear to be anything there that I wanted. There’d definitely be nothing in the kitchen or the dining room, so I headed downstairs. With a grin I headed over to my younger brother’s XBox. I shoved all the games and accessories I could find in the bag. Next, I took all the computer stuff I could.

Going back up to the living room, I pondered if there was anything else I could fit into the nearly over-flowing garbage bag. In a stroke of brilliance I remembered my mother’s jewellery box. In the blink of an eye, I was upstairs in my parent’s room, hovering over her most prized possessions. It was mostly filled with costume jewellery, but I took her gold necklace and diamond rings.

Within minutes I was back outside, locked door behind me, waiting bus in front of me. The bus was mostly empty, but I was still getting stared at because I was wearing thinner clothes then what the weather dictated and I had a huge garbage bag with me. I saw at least one person give a nod of understanding when I got off the bus in front of the pawn shop.

I’ve been here many times before, so without breaking a sweat I walked in and started placing the valuables on the counter. They always rip you off, but I didn’t need a whole lot of money, just enough for another fix, so I didn’t really care.

“You got a good haul today, Ben.” The guy behind the counter told me.

“Yeah, parents made a donation.”

“I don’t even want to know.” He pulled out a calculator and started punching in numbers. “I’m at $200, how’s that sound?”

“Yeah! Sure!”

“Alright, I’ll just need to grab some paperwork, on account of them diamonds. I’ll be right back.”

I leaned against the counter, trying to be as patient as possible. I glanced over at the pile of my parent’s and brother’s stuff and as my eyes looked at each object, a memory popped into my head.

“I can’t do this any more.”

In one swift motion, I swept everything back into the garbage bag and I bolted out the door.