Carefree || JJ Maybank

Chapter Twenty-Five

The next morning, the Pogues all planned to meet up again. JJ went home, as well as Pope. Everleigh spent the night with Kiara, and John B went home with Sarah.

Later that day, Sarah, Everleigh and Kie were all sitting in the Twinkie.

"He said it looked something like this." Kiara says, tracing her finger around a drawing of a contraption.

"That's 50 feet down, and they're using 100-feet rope. So I guess this little wagon will go..." Kiara explains.

"...straight to the gold room." Sarah smiles.

"Okay, who the hell drew this?" Everleigh says in confusion.

"Who do you think?" Kiara giggles, looking out at Pope.

"You wanna help?" John B asks Pope, making him snap back into reality.

"Yeah." Pope mumbles.

"Great." John B smiles, trying to build the thing to help get the gold out of the well.

"We get this boat winch out, bring it to the basement, drill into the floor. We lower you down and get as much as we can. And, uh... this time we don't drop you." Pope explains with a nervous laugh.

"That'd be great." John B laughs.

"Kie! This better work. We can't pawn this if there's a giant wheat symbol on it." JJ says, dropping the gold on the floor of the van.

"It's gonna work." Kiara smiles, holding a blowtorch up in the air.

Kiara melts the gold, as the others watch JJ celebrate.

On the ride there, him and Everleigh are given the roll of selling the gold.

"Hell of a job melting it down, Dr. Frankenstein." JJ scoffs, holding the pile of gold in his hand.

"Like you could've done better." She shoots back.

"I could have done much better. I took a welding class." JJ lies.

"When?" Kiara asks, crossing her arms.

"Chill out, okay?" John B intervenes.

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one that has to pawn this piece of shit off." JJ rolls his eyes.

"For real, stop complaining." Everleigh adds, "How did we get this job anyway?"

"'Cause you two are the best liars." Pope says, pulling his lips into a straight line.

They all head into the shop, JJ and Everleigh moving to the front counter, and the rest of the group splitting up around the store.

"Afternoon, ma'am." JJ says.

"Afternoon." She replies in a miserable voice.

"We see you buy gold." Everleigh smiles, hoping to give a friendly impression.

"That's what the sign say, don't it?" She replies rolling her eyes.

"Well, I sure hope you buy a lot of it, because we're about to blow your mind." JJ says.

"I ain't got much mind left to blow, so have at it." She says, with an obvious attitude.

"How about them gold apples?" Everleigh smiles, as JJ puts the gold on the counter.

The lady at the counter chuckles, "That ain't real."

"That ain't real?" JJ asks, sounding offended.

"It can't be." She says in denial.

"Feel how heavy it is." Everleigh says, holding her hand out, pointing to the gold.

JJ hums at the lady, noticing her struggle to pick it up.

"Let's get some light on that." JJ says, pointing to the magnifying glass, with a light attached to it.

"Spray-painted tungsten." The lady shoots back.

"Spray-painted tungsten? Really? Okay." Everleigh says, "What the hell even is tungsten?"

"Why don't you see how, uh, soft it is?" JJ says, stopping Everleigh.

"You mind?" The lady asks.

"No, go for it." JJ smiles.

The lady tests it, and feels no dent. "Wow. Would you look at that?" Everleigh smiles.

"Hold your horses. We ain't got to the acid test yet." The lady says, eyeing Everleigh.

"Ooh! The acid test." JJ cheers, "My favorite, guys."

"Well, it ain't plated, and it ain't painted." The woman says, after dropping a small amount of liquid on the gold.

"Ma'am, I'm telling ya, this is as real as the day is long." JJ says in a convincing tone.

"It looks like somebody tried to melt it down." The woman says in confusion.

JJ and Everleigh go quiet for a second, not having a reply.

"Our mom." Everleigh says quickly. "She had all this jewelry laying around the house, and she thought it was best to... to melt it down. To "consolidate" it."

JJ looks at her proudly.

"Seven pounds?" The lady questions, "That's a lot of earrings."

"Okay, to be honest, ma'am..." JJ clears his throat, and makes his eyes tear up. "It's really hard to see our mom fall apart with Alzheimer's."

Everleigh covered her mouth, hoping she wouldn't break her cover and burst out laughing. She couldn't help but think it was funny at how good he was at making himself cry. She looked around at the rest of the group to see their reaction, all of them shared a confused look.

"Mm-hm. Alzheimer's?" The lady asks, furrowing her brows. "Give me a minute."

"Take your time, ma'am." Everleigh says in a soft voice.

Once the lady walks to the back, Everleigh and JJ quietly laugh at each other. The rest of the group rolled their eyes at the two.

After a minute or two, the lady comes back, "I talked to my boss. And, uh, this is what I can do." She says, placing a small piece of paper on the counter which says '$50,000'

"Fifty thousand?" Everleigh reacts quickly.

"You think we walked in here not knowin' the spot price? Ma'am, we know for a fact this is worth 140, at least." JJ challenges, grabbing Everleigh's hand, visibly getting stressed.

"Well, sweetie, you in a pawnshop. This ain't Zurich.
Do I look Swiss to you?" The woman questions him.

"Ninety, or we walk." Everleigh spits out, without thinking.

"Seventy. Half price... and, um... I don't ask questions about where you got this." The lady says quietly.

JJ and Everleigh look over at John B, who gives them a discreet thumbs up.

"I'm gonna need that in large denominations, please." JJ smirks.

"Well, here's the snag." The lady starts, "I don't have that much denominated, not here anyway. I can write you a cashier's check."

"Cash... No, ma'am. We want the cold hard. That's what that sign says. Cash for gold. And that's what we expect. I'm gonna get it in cold hard." Everleigh challenges, tired of the lady's mind games.

"Well, I have to send you to the warehouse. I have the money there. Is that all right?" The lady asks.

Everleigh's face drops, she realized it was risky but worth it.

"Where's this warehouse?" JJ asks.