“Equivalent
exchange.”
“What?”
He turned around.
“Equivalent exchange. Like Fullmetal Alchemist. 'To obtain,
something of equal value must be lost.' You remember that, don't
you? We spent months watching it; you must know!”
Peter chuckled.
“You always were the nerdy one.”
Roy knelt again,
scooping up some mud from the ground and packing it into a ball in
his hands. “I'm being serious here. I have some kind of special
power here, and you laugh at me like I'm joking.”
“Because you're a
jokester. Most days I can't tell when you're being serious or when
you're pulling my leg. The day you're actually being serious when you
say you're being serious is the day I become a millionaire.”
“Well,” Roy
began, standing up and turning towards his friend, “that day is
today.” He held out his hands, the ball of mud encased between
them. “I have your million dollars right here, if you will take my
word for it.”
“A million
dollars, huh? I doubt that mud is worth as much as you say it is.”
It was Roy's turn
to laugh. “I'm telling you, I can make you a millionaire with this
mud. All I ask is that you take the chance and believe in me.”
“Okay, fine. I
believe you. Can I be a millionaire now?”
Roy pressed his
hands together and closed his eyes for a moment. After a few seconds,
he opened his eyes and smiled. “Close your eyes and hold your hands
out. I'm going to give you a present.”
Peter sighed, but
closed his eyes and held out his hands to oblige his friend. The next
thing he knew, he was dropping something very heavy. It fell to the
ground with a dull thud.
“You can open
your eyes now.”
Peter did so and
looked to his feet. Where there should have been a ball of (very
heavy) mud, there was actually a ball of gold. Pure gold.
“Wha- how? You
did this?! How did you do this?!”
Roy began to laugh.
“That's just it; I don't know! I concentrated on that ball of mud
and told it to become something of great worth, and that's what it
became! Now, if you don't want it, I'm sure I can find a use for
it...” He stepped towards his friend, but Peter knelt and scooped
up the precious metal first.
“It's really
heavy. Is gold supposed to be this heavy?”
“Yeah, I'm pretty
sure it's supposed to be that heavy.”
“What do we do
with it?”
“We? Nothing. You
should have it appraised. Say you found it in the rock quarry a
couple miles from here. Do something for your family with the money
you get from it. I have a few experiments I have to do, and soon I'll
be leaving this go-nowhere town. You should too.”
Peter furrowed his
brow. “So, that's it? You hand me this lump of gold, free of
charge, and then tell me you're going to disappear? Will we cross
paths again?”
Roy nodded. “I'll
find you, and we'll hang out again. But not here. And not soon. I
have a few things I need to do first.” He paused and thought for a
moment. “Move to Colorado. I hear it's getting to be an awesome
place to live nowadays, and your mother would benefit from the fresh
air. In a year or two I'll show up at your front door.”
“How will you
afford to move?”
“Peter, I can
turn mud into gold. I don't think money is going to be that big a
problem for me.”
