The ring he found under the PBR tallboy sparkled once he rinsed the mud from it in the spigot behind the flower shop. Flower shop guys never yelled at him for drinking from it, not like those jerks at the tire shop.
Ted stashed his returnables bag under a bush and walked the extra five blocks to the pawnshop where they didn’t know him, guessing he’d get a tiny bit more respect.
“It’s a great costume piece,” the guy in the camo hat said. “I can give you twelve bucks.”
Ted didn’t have seven more blocks in him for the television pawn place. He took the twelve and walked south on Greenfield. The St.Peter’s basement meeting started in twenty minutes.
Mickey looked at the ring Butch had just purchased.
“Want me to price it at $250?”
“Two seventy five.” And don’t give me that look. That old codger woulda killed himself if I had given him more money.”
Ted left St.Peter’s with a large coffee, one of Cathi’s lemon cookies, and a ten-dollar bill he wasn’t sure what he would do with.