Michael Transactions

I hold out my palm to reveal four imposing coins laying across the fateful ridges and divots of skin. Lightning flashes in the background. I laugh.

Michael hands you his hat in exchange for the coins. He is smiling, but his eyes look full and watery.

"Thank you for your purchase," he says, but he's still nursing the wound you have cut open. This job has taken away so much from him. He wish he could quit, could leave. It wasn't in the cards. He didn't want to end up like Michelle.