A fellow (in his early 20s) had obtained a signed, blank check from another fellow (about the same age). The fellow with the check decided to fill in a figure on the check and cash it, even though he had told the fellow who had signed the check that he wasn't going to do that. He wrote in a figure of $5,000.
The fellow with the check was in a foreign country (which seemed somewhat like Iran) when he took the check to a bank and went to the teller's window with it. The manager of the bank walked over, examined the check and told the teller to give the man the money. The teller began counting out the foreign money – small, square bills. But part of the change was given in American money, which consisted of American dollar bills cut up into pieces and used as change in that country. The fellow mentioned it was against the law to cut up American dollars like that, but no one there cared because it was a foreign country.
After cashing the check the fellow left, but a couple days later, after being called back, he returned to the bank. There he found the fellow who had originally signed the check with the bank manager. The bank manager asked them to sit down and discuss what had happened. The fellow who had signed the check said the other fellow had promised he wouldn't cash the check.
It began to seem as if I was the fellow who had cashed the check and I was the one sitting here talking with the fellow who had signed the check. I told the fellow who had signed the check I could have made the check for $10,000 or $20,000 or a lot more money than what I had. But I told him I was agreeable to giving back the money if the fellow who had signed the check would give me something in exchange.
I told the fellow I was interested in having a house and I knew houses were expensive here. A fellow who rather reminded me of Brian walked up and said houses in the better part of town went for as high as ten million dollars.
I thought the fellow who had signed the check lived in one of those ten million dollar houses. I myself had been living and putting my family up in a house in this Iranian city. I knew it wasn't one of the better houses in town, but it was sufficient at the moment for maintaining the family.
It turned out the fellow who had signed the check owned part of the Gay Street House. I thought I would like to have some interest in the House and the fellow who had signed the check said he would give me part of his interest in the House. I agreed to that.
I then went to the Gay Street House. But it now seemed as if it had been another fellow, and not me, who had acquired an interest in the House from the fellow who had signed the check. I, along with six other fellows who were apparently college students, already had an interest in the House. We talked about whether the new fellow now owned part of the House and we concluded he did.
The seven of us and the new fellow were outside and began looking the House over, thinking of having it repainted white. The paint was in pretty bad shape and I could tell that whoever had painted it the last time had let the paint drip somewhat. The places where it had dripped needed to be peeled off and painted again. We were considering whether we wanted to do it. I was very much in favor of it. We finally had a vote. Five, including myself, voted to paint and two voted against it. One fellow still had to vote.
One fellow resembled Moon (a former law school classmate). He was lying on the ground close to the House and suddenly he said he had found a gold coin. I went to him and saw he had what appeared to be a five dollar gold coin, which seemed to have an Indian face on it. I realized it was very valuable. Looking around, I discovered some more gold coins lying close to the House. I began picking them up and said, "Here's some more. Here's some more."
The coin Moon had had was bright and shiny. The ones I found were a dull color at first, but when I rubbed them, they turned a bright, shiny gold. I began running my hands through the dirt and I could feel the coins there. I pulled the coins out of the dirt and put them in my pockets. Everyone began digging in the dirt along the base of the House and finding gold coins there. I dug up a large pile of dirt and people on my right and left were also digging and filling their pockets with gold coins. I became quite excited and hollered out that the coins were worth at least $100 apiece. But finally it appeared we had found all the coins.
We walked into the House where we encountered my father. It appeared one of the lights had burnt out in the hall where the stairs were. My father had taken out the bulb and had asked someone to go get a new one for him. He handed me the old bulb and I looked at it. It looked as if it had been there a very long time. I thought perhaps I was the one who had originally put the bulb in.
Copyright 2004 by luciddreamer2k@gmail.com
