What am I doing here? Samantha thinks to herself with a sigh, roaming amongst the tables of the Flea Market.
I know Nina and Chris wanted me to get out and meet someone, but here of all places?
Samantha Peters was a little on the sad side. She just recently celebrated her 55th Birthday alone and childless, after her twenty year marriage to her ex-husband Thomas recently imploded after discovering he was having an affair with a woman literally half his age.
She blamed herself, deep down, because Thomas always wanted children, a lot of children, and getting pregnant and raising ungrateful little brats was something that she never, ever, wanted to do. She hated children, always had in fact, probably due to the fact that she spent the last 30 years teaching, and was exposed on a daily basis on the worst children had to offer.
Still, maybe she could have had at least one child, maybe that would have made Thomas happy. And maybe it wouldn't have left her "golden years" so damn lonely. She came home to an empty house, filled with bad memories, and did nothing. Watched TV, read books, worked on her garden, with only her empty sighs breaking the silence.
It's too late for any of that now She thought to herself, as she continued to peruse the tables, blushing aside a slowly greying strand of her platinum blonde hair aside. Too old she thought. And she was beginning to feel it.
She woke up with crow's feet under her eyes, more and more of her once gorgeous long platinum blonde turning grey, her joints beginning to ache, and her once tight figure beginning to sag, especially her upper regions. Old Maid Samantha she thought to herself.
Her best friend, Nina Weeks, and her husband Chris, had insisted that she join them to this big Flea Market that was in town for the weekend only, hoping to get her out of her lonely cold house, and hopefully meet someone nice. She didn't share their optimism, but she thought it would be nice to get out, even if it was just with friends. She chose her nicest blue sundress she had, and put on a little makeup, and joined her friends for this "hot day on the town".
Her best friend Nina, could not have been more different from her. While Samantha's marriage floundered over a lack of children, Nina and Chris's thrived with an overabundance of children. Four precisely,all boys, the youngest, just heading off to college
a few weeks ago, leaving Nina and Chris alone in their big house for the first time in their lives.
They're lonely Samantha thought. That's the reason they wanted me to come along. They don't want to be alone with each other, afraid to find out if the only reason their marriage worked was because they always had children to think of.
Still, it must have been nice Samantha thought, her mind racing back to her own shattered marriage and loneliness .
After a few more moments of walking around, a bright silver gleam caught her attention on a table next to her; a coin, approximately the size of a quarter sitting on the table. Full of scratches, the strange coin appears to have the image of a pregnant woman, and a...
Strange, the male figure on this coin looks pregnant like the woman. I wonder if this some type of old ceremonial coin? she thought to herself, looking at the coin.
What appears to be a pregnant man and a pregnant woman are on the head of the coin, a happy look on their face, while on the tail end of the coin, are the same pregnant man and pregnant woman, a look of panic and fear on their face.
"Ah, my dear lady. You like the coin?" a voice asks her. Samantha's attention is taken off the coin, to a twenty-something year old man, dressed all in black, wearing way too much makeup and mascara, with several piercings on his face. "At Lavern's Lair Of The Occult, any item you purchase could have powers beyond your wildest comprehension! These cursed, haunted, and otherwise supernatural items come from the deepest darkest regions of Earth" he says, with quite the sales pitch.
"Yes, this quite the strange coin. Where did you get it?" Samantha asks, turning her attention away from the goth man and to the coin.
He looks at the coin for a moment, and then his face goes blank.
"Oh that? I got that some fat guy who was desperate to get rid of it or something. Said it brought him nothing but trouble. Judging by his gut, looked like it gave him nothing but pizza." Lavern says.
Buy Me Samantha an alien thought raced through her head.
"How much?" Samantha asks without hesitation.
"Well, how about a dollar? The guy just gave it to me, telling me to get rid of it forever, but what does he know? He just shoved it in my hand, and then waddled back inside when two of his kids started crying from his house" Lavern says.
Pay for it the alien thought races through her head again.
"I'll take it!" she says, taking a dollar from her purse and putting it on the table.
"Thanks lady. You've been my first customer all day. I was hoping that all this fake mystical crap I got off weirdoes from craigslist would have been more profitable. Oh well" Lavern says, putting the dollar in his money box.
Samantha didn't hear him thought, she was walking in a daze, staring at the coin, running her fingers along it's surface.
"Samantha! Over here!" She's brought back to reality, by her friend Nina, who approaches her. Nearly Samantha's age, she's dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, with the words "World's Greatest Mom" written on it. Her once dirty blonde hair is slowly greying just like Samantha's, but Nina could still pass for mid 40's if she really tried.
Her husband on the other hand, was skinny as a rail, with a short haircut, and wear khaki's and a button up shirt. Slightly younger than Nina, he looked like a stereotypical father you would see on a sitcom, right down to the mustache. Both of them worked together in the same office, where Chris did IT work, and Nina did sales.
"Did you find anything? Some clothes? An antique? A man?" Nina says slyly.
"Oh honey, leave her alone" Chris says, playfully nudging his wife.
"I found this strange coin" Samantha says showing it to Nina and Chris.
"Weird art on it" Nina says.
"It's probably one of a kind. Let me borrow it sometime, I collect coins, I can probably do some research on it for you" Chris says.
"Chris" Nina says, slightly annoyed.
"What? I didn't say now. I said later, after she's had it for a while" Chris says correcting.
"So do we want to hang around here some more? Or should we head back home?" Nina asks Samantha.
"I'm having a great time. I could stay here a little bit longer" Chris says.
Samantha is not hearing any of this though, her attention once again drawn to the strange coin.
Flip Me Samantha. Heads Or Tails. the alien thought races through her head once again.
Without even realizing it, she places the coins on her thumb, and gives it a nice strong flick, sending it high into the air, and then catching it in her hand, closing tight around it.
Look at someone Samantha. Look. the thought charges through her head with the coin in her hand.
Who does she look at?
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