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"Hell of a job melting it down, Dr. Frankenstein," JJ told Kiara when everyone hopped out of Twinkie. Emelina fixed the strap of her white cropped tank top, watching Kiara roll her eyes at the boy. "Like you could've done any better."

"I could have. I took a welding class." he corrected her. Emelina exhaled a breath as she looked up at the building in front of them. The Pawn Shop.

Kiara tried to melt down the gold to hide the wheat symbol and to make it less suspicious, but she didn't do that great in succeeding in her task. It looked all jumbled up.

"When?" Kiara asked him and John B inserted himself and separated them with his hands. "Woah, Woah. Hey. Sh! Chill out, okay?" he said in a soothing tone.

JJ looked at him, "Easy for you to say that. You're not the one that has to pawn this piece of shit off... How did I get this job anyway?"

"'Cause, you're the best liar," Pope answered him and everyone followed JJ into the shop. He opened the door that signaled the bell to ring. "Afternoon, ma'am," he said to the woman upfront.

"Afternoon," the woman spoke. Emelina walked away from them and aimed toward the middle of the shop. Her fingers touch some antique silverware to make herself seem busy but her ears stayed in contact with JJ's conversation.

"I see you buy gold," JJ said. "That's what the sign says, don't it?" the woman replied sarcastically. JJ took off his backpack, "Well, I sure hope you buy a lot of it because I'm about to blow your mind."

"I ain't got much mind left to blow, so have at it," she said and JJ placed his bag on the countertop to pull out the badly attempted melted down gold. "How about them gold apples?"

The woman chuckled, "That ain't real."

"That ain't real?" JJ repeated her with a different tone. "Feel how heavy it is."

The pawnbroker picked up the piece of gold. "Here, let's get some light on that," JJ said and she did. "Spray-painted tungsten," she said after observing it with a magnifying glass.

Emelina rolled her eyes from afar, wanting this to be over with. She picked up a book and pretended to be interested, and walked a little closer to JJ and the pawnbroker. "Spray-painted tungsten? Really? Okay. Why don't you see how, uh, soft it is?" JJ said.

She did some more tests on it, including tapping on it with a small hammer and the acid test. "Well, it ain't plated, and it ain't painted."

"Ma'am, I'm telling ya, this is as real as the day is long," JJ told her and the pawnbroker continued to touch the piece of gold. "It looks like somebody tried to melt it down."

"My mom," JJ answered. "She had all this jewelry laying around the house, and she thought it was best to—to melt it down... to consolidate it."

unspoken thing » jj maybankWhere stories live. Discover now