part0019

T he coins tumbled through the air, but unlike the geese, they held no V-like formation. Each coin went veering away from the other and landed lost and alone on different parts of the island.

Ned plummeted through a thicket, bounced off a stone, and landed heads-up in a tuft of grass. The chief hit the trunk of the maple tree, ricocheted away, and settled on an anthill. Pete plopped face down into a puddle of mud.

Deirdre Dime found herself teetering on the edge of a cliff, staring down at the water, which looked dark and foreboding with the approach of evening. A large, shadowy form appeared beneath her and began to swim in menacing circles. To her horror, Deirdre recognized the figure as a big-mouthed carp.

“Oh my God,” she whimpered .

“I might not be for long. Get your butt over here and give me a hand.”

“Hold on, I’m coming.”

Held aloft by the springy grass, Ned was unable to gain traction. Bucking out of the question, he squirmed until he slipped through the blades and hit the ground rim-first. For a nickel, the tall clump of grass was like being lost in a bamboo forest. Bit by bit he maneuvered between the blades, leaning this way and that, rolling from one gap to the next. Although the patch of grass was only a foot square, for someone the size of a nickel it may as well have been a football field.

When Ned broke out, he found himself standing on a sandbar. He couldn’t roll across the loose sand, but by bucking he could crawl. He slogged forward inch by inch in the direction of the chief, calling to him every few minutes to get his bearings.

“Here, Four. Near the tree. Hurry up before I float away!”

Ned bucked up a hill and scouted the vicinity. He saw the tree, but the ground was obscured by brush and grass.

“I don’t see you, Chief. Can’t you buck out of there?”

“I don’t have anything to buck on. Look for a column of red ants.”

Ned peered closer. In the valley below, emerging from beneath a stumpy bush, he spotted a procession of marching ants. They seemed to be carrying something. Chief? The nickel was putting up a struggle, but there were too many ants beneath him to break free.

Ned didn’t know where the ants were hauling him, but they were approaching the edge of the island. He hopped off the mound and bounded towards the column, bucking as fast as he could. His nickel armor would protect him from any bites, but he knew he had to be careful not to get caught up in their swarm, else they’d carry him off just like they were doing with the chief. As he neared, he saw that even Buffalo with all his kicking and snorting couldn’t fight off the tenacious ants.

Possessing no weapon but the laws of nature and his own dexterity, Ned used the high ground and the gravity it gave him to race down the hill into the valley below. As he was about to plow into the column of ants, he went into super-twirl. Whirling like a top, Ned smashed into the column and sent the ants flying. He batted away every ant between him and the chief. The ants scattered in the turbulence and dropped the nickel.

The chief shouted, “Yahla , Four! Let’s get out of here!”

The two nickels took off bucking, leaving the ants in their dust.

Until now, the two coins weren’t sure where they were. All they knew was that the man had pitched them into the air. They didn’t realize they were on an island. When they came to the edge, they assumed they were on a peninsula. But after traveling along its craggy perimeter for an hour, and getting a better view of their surroundings, they recognized that they were castaway coins; nickels marooned far from any purse, pocket, or tip taxi. With no markets anywhere in sight, not even a trading post, they feared they could be stranded on the commerce-forsaken island for years, maybe longer.

“Gam zu l’tovah , Chief?”

“Of course, Four. At least we’re not at the bottom of a lake.”

“We aren’t, but maybe poor Pete and Deirdre are. You’d think they’d holler for help.”

“Maybe they can’t,” the chief replied. “Besides, that mulish dime doesn’t know we can move, so why would she even bother? We won’t assume the worst until after we’ve gone looking for them.”

“Where do we start? They could be anywhere.”

“I say we start on the edge and wind our way inland. Yahla , we go.”

The coins continued on their way, lumbering from rocky point to rocky point, burrowing through duff, clambering over roots and sticks, and squeezing between weeds, grass, and thistle.

Pete felt himself sink slowly into the mud. Gripped with panic, he thought he was drifting ever downwards into a bottomless pit of eerie silence. All was darkness, and with each passing minute he felt the weight of the mud grow heavier on his back.

The penny had been in many difficult situations before, but none seemed as hopeless as this. At least when he passed through the digestive tract of that two-year-old, he knew he’d eventually reach the end. Not now.

And what of Ned and the chief? If they had somehow survived the coin toss and were now looking for him, how would they ever find him? He had disappeared without a trace.

He needed a miracle, but from where could it come? No one knew where he was. Alone and surrounded by thick goop, no one could hear his cries. He was all on his own, just him and his thoughts, which became more panic-stricken by the minute.

Meanwhile, Deirdre had worries of her own. Tottering perilously on the cliff, the wind had picked up and it began to sprinkle. She feared that if a gust didn’t knock her off her ledge and into the thick-lipped monster below, a fat raindrop might.

If matters couldn’t be worse, she saw three more shadows approach, each bigger than the next. Only these had whiskers and no scales. Catfish! To her continued dismay, they joined the first in its observation of the shiny meal. Circling ominously below, the carp and catfish took turns popping their heads above the surface, their sinister-looking eyes calculating and scheming.

The dime had heard stories of what could happen in the belly of one of those beasts. Coins that had been tossed into fountains or gardens stocked with the ornamental carp known as koi —those that lived to tell of the nightmare—emerged with their faces nearly melted off by the fish’s digestive juices. Passing through a catfish, if one even made it through, she thought, could be even worse. Deirdre shuddered at the thought and began to cry.

One of the carp leapt from the water, its smacking lips missing her by an inch. It fell back into the lake with a splash. Startled out of her wits, Deirdre shrieked in horror.

“Could be. But I couldn’t tell where it came from.”

Recalling Deirdre’s excellent hearing, Ned shouted, “Deirdre! Deirdre, where are you?”

The chief said, “Even if she hears you, the stubborn dime doesn’t believe we could do anything to help her and won’t answer.”

“She didn’t an hour ago,” Ned rejoined, “but she might now. Faith in something bigger than oneself is often born in dire situations. Deirdre!”

A few moments later, they heard a perplexed and fear-stung voice call, “Ned…?”

“Yeah, Deirdre. It’s Ned. I’m with the chief. Where are you?”

“I-I’m stuck on the edge of a cliff. I’m afraid I might topple into the water any moment! And-and, there are giant goldfish who want to eat me!”

“Keep calm,” Ned shouted back. “We’re on our way!”

“On your…? Hurry!”

Ned and the chief bucked on, calling to Deirdre every few feet to reassure her that they were coming. Buffalo was the first to spot her. He snorted and raised a paw, pointing towards the teetering dime. The nickels hurried over to her.

“Deirdre,” Ned said. “Hold on.”

“Ned? Chief? How…?” A pebble loosened beneath her and dropped into the swirling water. “Oh…hurry!”

“Chief, remember back in the shoebox how you stomped down on my edge to flip me upright?”

“The dime isn’t you, Four. She can’t stand. She can’t even buck.”

“Still, if you can tiddlywink her at the right spot, you can flip her away from the cliff. Do you think you can do that?”

“I’ve been wanting to stomp on her since she first opened her big mouth, Four.”

“But careful, Chief. One false move could send her plummeting.”

Deirdre stammered, “Wh-what are you going to do?”

The chief sidled next to the dime. He made his calculations and consulted with Buffalo, who nodded his understanding.

“Opa !” The chief reared and stomped down on the dime’s edge.

Deirdre went flipping and screaming backwards from the cliff. She tumbled through the air past Ned and the chief, bounced off a rock, rolled, and flopped to a stop on a large, flat stone.

Ned and the chief bucked over to her. “Deirdre,” Ned said, “are you okay?”

Deirdre nodded in bewilderment. “I-I think I must be dreaming. Where am I?”

“We’re on an island,” Ned answered .

“An island? But how?”

“For some reason the man had a change of heart and tossed us here.”

“I mean,” Deirdre said, “how did you do what you did? Coins can’t move. Not by ourselves we can’t.”

Ned bucked closer, rimmed up, and leaned over Deirdre. “We can’t?”

Ned rolled circling around her. He twirled twice, and bowed. “We can’t do that either?”

“Always the actor,” the chief said.

“The Four?” Deirdre said. “The Four is for real?”

Ned turned and flashed her his backside and its telltale FOUR. “The one and only.”

“That I already know, but the stories. The stories aren’t stories?”

“I’m sure many of them are, but yes, Deirdre, locomotion is real.”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” Ned said.

“Why not? I’m highly intelligent and a good student. I’m the brightest dime you’ll ever meet.”

“The most conceited anyway,” the chief muttered. “It’s not about smarts, lady. You’re missing the most important element.”

“I’m 90% silver and 10% copper, sir. I’m more valuable than you are.”

“Your true worth can’t be measured in grams, lady.”

“But of course it is,” Deirdre retorted.

Ned said, “What the chief is saying, is that to do what we can do requires something that can’t be weighed—something lighter than air; something invisible.”

“What are you talking about, nickel?”

“I’m talking about—”

“What now?” the chief groaned.

Deirdre screamed again, her eye wide in fright.

Ned and the chief spun to see what had so spooked the dime. They saw leaning against the stem of a large weed a heaving, ugly, brown clump of clay.

“Penny?” the chief said.

“Hi, everybody!”

“How long have you been standing there?”

“I just got here.”

“Why didn’t you answer when we were calling out?”

Pete blinked away some slime and spat out a mouthful of mud. “Yuck. I couldn’t hear you. I was being swallowed up in some sort of quicksand and my ear is full of gunk.”

“Pete,” Ned said excitedly. “You did it!”

“I just did. I was sinking in goop, and I thought I was a goner. I didn’t know where you guys were, and knew you couldn’t find me even if you were nearby. I was really scared. I needed a miracle, but couldn’t imagine where it would come from. I thought I had to be my own miracle.”

“Miracle?” Deirdre said. “What kind of miracle.”

“Yeah, Pete,” Ned said. “What happened back there? ”

“Well, I knew what you and the chief could do. And I remembered how once out of desperation I had rolled down a street in Phoenix, Arizona on my own volition. I also recalled how me and Paddy penny moved those marbles back at the coin show. And, of course, what we achieved at the Springfield campsite—fire thoughts. Miracles. I told myself that if I was going to live to see you guys again, I just had to get out of there. I had to believe that I’m a miracle too. I had to believe that I could swim.”

“Swim?” Deirdre said. “We can swim too?”

“Not exactly swim,” Pete said. “I was in this thick mud.” He faced Ned and the chief. “I thought that if I could buck, I could paddle out of there. You know, like how a person kicks when swimming the butterfly. I repeated over and over, ‘I can buck, I can buck.’ A voice in my head said, ‘No, you can’t. That’s impossible.’ It made me really angry, and I shouted back, ‘Shut up. I can, and I will!’ And just like that, I began to waggle and paddle-buck my way through the mud!”

Ned turned to Deirdre. “The missing ingredient,” he said.

“Believing, Deirdre. Determination and expectation. If you don’t believe you can do something, you never will.”

“But it can’t be that easy, otherwise coins would be romping all over the world.”

“Who said it’s easy? For some, believing could be the hardest thing in the world. You have to believe from heads to tails. That’s what Pete did.”