Page 11 of Etched in Stone
“I don't like him.”
“Pardon?” Jesse said for the second time in five minutes.
“That man. He's bad news. You should stay away from him.” Ray squinted at the door as if Pablo were hiding and listening in on the other side.
“I don't see how that's any of your business.”
“If he's in my building, it's my business. What was he really doing here?”
“Ray. Honestly. It's my apartment and I expect you to respect the bounds of my apartment. He was here as my guest and therefore none of your goddamn business.”
The grumpy man paused to stare at her. It was clear that she had crossed some sort of line, and she wasn't sure how that had happened. It was one thing to be civil with your super. It was another to have him leave the door open so a stranger could wander in and then blame her for the whole debacle.
“Right,” he answered.
He turned, and then turned again. “But that's not exactly true. Olivia told me, made me promise to watch over you. And I always keep my promises.”
“I don't need a babysitter. I do quite well on my own.”
“Really? Well? How?”
“I make do.”
“You don't have any friends, no love life to speak of, and the only business walking through your door is a pretty darn shady character.”
So he had been spying on her. It was all true, but she'd croak before she'd admit it.
“Your life doesn't seem to be one raging party either.”
“I can pay the rent.”
“I can too. I only missed a-”
“Twelve thousand fifty-two.”
No. It couldn't be that much, could it? Jesse took a deep breath and tried to count it out. Living in New York was expensive. She wasn't sure how she'd got that far behind. She was going to have to get a real day job and sit behind a desk for hours. Ray knew how much she owed down to the dollar.
She'd taken him for a doddering old man who couldn't keep track of how much she owed, but he knew and overlooked it. That's what kind of man had that sort of a apartment that she'd seen the other day.
He was sharp as a tack. She owed him money and he had offered his bathroom.
Her emotions must have been all over her face because Ray's own shoulders slumped and skulked out.
“Forget about it,” he said and then closed the garden door behind him.
Twelve thousand. Wait, hadn't she just been offered a box worth twenty grand?
Jesse sat down on the couch and stared at the neat white box all tied up with a red ribbon. It was ominous, but it might be the solution to all of her problems. She untied the ribbon.
In the box was a smaller box with a large blood red crystal. The thing was faceted into an odd shape that Jesse had never quite seen before. It was intriguing and the stone felt warm in her fingers. It wasn't a resin casting or cheap glass cut. It felt like a real gemstone. She had little to no knowledge of actual jewels, but if she had to guess, she'd say that this was worth a chunk of change.
Under the box were a series of photographs of a large amulet. It was a dark metallic disc covered in strange symbols. In the center, was the crystal that she still held in her hand. She could see herself sculpting it and pouring a mold. But why they hadn't just taken a silicone mold of the original or scanned it and used a 3D printer to replicate it?
Either way, It would take her a few days and very little in supplies to make a reasonable copy of this thing. She could do it, but should she? Creepy government men versus the possibility of having to go out and find a desk job.
She knew which of the two was going to win. It was time to go condition some clay.
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