On to the Shop

I ran the rest of the way to the coffee shop. Somehow that short interlude had eaten up nearly all my leeway. Luckily it wasn't much further and my sprint got me to the front door just as the older blonde woman was flipping the sign on the door to open. Bethany didn't say anything as I moved past to go get my apron from the back, but I did hear a amused snort as she held the door for me.

The shop was all set up and ready to go. I don't know why she preferred to do all the morning prep work herself, it had just been this way since she hired me. After I'd gotten my apron settled, the only real 'uniform' Bethany required, I tried to decide what to do with the leather case. Noting that it had a clip I just shrugged and attached it to my belt. Best to keep on me I figured, especially since we didn't really have lockers or anything.

As I came out of the back I saw that my boss was already taking orders and moved past her to start making coffees, letting the mundane task settle my nerves. This was the busiest part of my shift but the job wasn't that hard and I could largely zone out.

Part of that zoning out came in the form of checking out my boss. Bethany was in her early thirties, but still looked good if a bit worn out from running the shop. Her long blonde hair worn back in a pony tail that swayed back and forth over her ass. That ass was her best feature, packed today into tight jeans that showed off the rounded swell of her ass to great effect.

The job may not have payed that well, but getting to watch Bethany's ass as I worked on orders was a nice perk.

Eventually the morning rush settled down enough she could turn her attention back to me. "You miss your bus or something this morning kid?" That was my biggest gripe with the older woman, always talking down to me just because I was younger. I was nineteen, not a kid.

"Sorry, got distracted by a new shop up the street. Lost track of time."

She took off her apron, showing the swell of her modest breasts behind a blue shirt, I tried to keep my gaze on her blue eyes instead. "What new shop? I didn't see anything this morning."

"Celestial Delights, it's just up the street."

She shook her head. "Whatever, I'm going to take a break. Watch the till." Typical when we weren't busy, but I wasn't complaining. She ran the store herself from sun up to sun down with just me and Victoria assisting on our shifts. Not much of a life outside of that that I knew of. It was different back when she was running the place with Dan still, back before the bitter divorce that she would not talk about at all. Apparently she got the shop and he got their house.

I was glad she'd kept the shop though, Dan had been an ass. And she was much nicer to look at.

Knowing she wouldn't be back unless I called her to let her know things were busy again and the store usually being dead this time during the week I figured this was a chance to take another look at my golden opportunity.

I pulled the leather case off of my belt and unzipped it as I placed in on a side counter. There may have been no one here currently, but I didn't want it totally out in the open just in case. The brass tube sat on the black velvet interior of the case, about eight inches or so long. And another inch, inch and a half around. Both ends had a clear crystal lens set in them, definitely not glass like you'd expect. It looked a lot like a scope for some steampunk rifle. The brass had a rich patina in spots giving the thing an air of ancient mystery, though the strange woman at the shop had claimed to have just made it.

Moment of truth. We'd see if all that in the shop had just been slight of hand. Picking up the Alterscope I pressed in the green lens with a click. Looking through the scope I could clearly see the Emerald disk. There was some kind of runic writing along the outer edge inscribed into the gem itself. Nothing that I recognized, and for all I knew it was purely decorative. Glancing nervously back at the entryway to the back of the shop I opened the till and pulled out a $20 bill. I was just borrowing it for a second, Bethany would never have to know.

I set it and a penny from my pocket down on the counter by the leather case and looked through the scope at the bill. I pressed in the button like she said then released it with a click. Nothing really happened, though I noted the emerald had reset. "Well here goes nothing." I slotted the green and red lenses into place and looked through the scope at the penny. Interestingly both lenses could still be made out looking inside, mostly because the red gem had it's own inscribed writing. Another click and now I was looking at two twenty dollar bills. "Hot damn."

I set the scope back in it's case and picked up the two bills trying to see if there was any difference between them, and that's when I saw the problem. Well two problems. First they were too identical, the serial numbers were an exact match and that was sure to raise flags somewhere, but it was a bit moot because of the second problem. Jackson was holding up a penny. "Fuck." There was no way someone wouldn't notice that. Right? And even if whoever I gave it to didn't someone would and it would get back to me. Probably.

I put the real twenty back in the till and the fake in my pocket. So I couldn't literally print money, that wasn't a dead end, I could still work with this. The really odd thing I noted with the fake twenty was even though it acted like paper should it still somehow felt metallic. So the changed item still had some sway on it's altered form.

I'd zipped up the scope back in it's case, and that on my belt before my next customer came in, but I was lost in thought the whole shift about how I could use this to make myself rich. There had to be a way.