Work Text:
It was bad enough paying for it once, I’m not going to pay for it twice
February 2023 Challenge
Universe of Winter’s Refuge
JED ‘KID’ CURRY
In the cold weather, fewer customers come to my blacksmith shop and on snowy days that number usually drops to zero. I still open it every day, but these are the days I use for what Jeff Birde calls my creative pieces that I sell in his mercantile. Heyes had designed a lock while he was still in prison, but I’ve never had the opportunity to try and make it. He mapped it out well and some of the principles are the same as the lock I made him with three keys, but his has a twist that makes it harder to open….and harder to make.
I was absorbed in my third attempt at the lock when Ol’ Mister Bretherton pulled up in his buggy outside my shop. He got bad arthritis, so I went out to see him.
“Good day, Mr. Bretherton. What brings you out in this cold?”
I could see he was well tucked in with heavy blankets over his lap and a warm coat and hat. He had never come here before. I knew from Jeff Birde, the owner of the new mercantile, that he was considered a stingy miser beyond belief. Jeff had joked that that’s what kept the old man alive, seein’ how much he could get for nearly nothin’.
Still, he was the oldest resident of Three Birds and in my mind demanded respect.
No greetin', he got right to what he wanted. “Can you make me one of these for my daughter?” He shoved a picture at me of a silver bracelet, plain with no detail with words to be engraved written below.
“I could but I don’t have much silver right now and can’t get it here until this storm passes. When do you need it?”
“Now! Tomorrow! I need to put it in the mail tomorrow. Can you melt this down? The rest of the set is long gone.”
He handed me a plain silver spoon. I looked at it closely. “I can try but this is not pure silver. It’s mixed with another metal. I don’t know if I can shape it into this bracelet.”
“I was told you are the best. If I was told wrong, I can go elsewhere.” He grabbed the spoon back.
I took a deep breath. He wanted a present for his daughter; I could understand that. “Come back tomorrow at the same time.” I gave him a smile and hoped it didn’t look as fake as it felt.
“How much are you going to rob me of to do this? You are a famous robber are you not?” He smiled, pleased with himself.
I felt like I’d been slapped across the face but worked to steady my features. No one was goin’ to make me feel inferior again. “You providin' some of the metal. I’ll add what I have. Three dollars.”
“You’re still a thief. Three dollars it is, but only because I was told you are the best.”
ASJ******ASJ
The bracelet came out better than I had hoped, and the inscription was clear and well-spaced. I wanted Mr. Bretherton to be pleased. I even molded the traces of leftover metal into a nugget to return to him.
He came earlier today and Chrissy and Heyes were still helpin' to check customers in. Chrissy still handles the horses needin' shoein' and I take the other work orders. Heyes tries to write all the ‘incoming’, as he calls it, into his ledger immediately.
“Blacksmith, come over here!” Mr. Bremerton yelled loudly.
Knowin' I was busy, Heyes approached his buggy. “I help you?” he asked. Talkin' to strangers still unnerves him but it does it to help me.
As I checked in the next customer, I kept an eye on Heyes and Mr. Bremerton.
“You the other convict?” Bremerton made the question sound like an accusation.
Heyes stared at the man, and I knew he had lost his words. I fight an internal battle not to feel inferior, but Heyes isn’t strong enough to do that for himself yet. Chrissy stopped what she was doin’ and moved to the back room of the forge where she felt protected but could still see.
I walked over to the buggy with my shoulders back and pulled up to my full height. “Ex-convict.”
Bremerton laughed. “My mistake, ex-convict.” He made that sound like somethin' even worse.
I refused to acknowledge the comment. “Here’s your bracelet, Mr. Bremerton, and the remainin' silver.”
He examined it carefully and smiled. “Very nice work, blacksmith. And honest at that, returning the rest of the silver.”
“The name’s Curry.”
He gave me that look meant to make me feel subordinate. I refused to look down and looked him straight in his eyes.
“I shall commend those who recommended you to me.” He started to drive away.
I grabbed hold of the horse’s reins. “My three dollars, please.”
“You are mistaken, Blacksmith, I paid you in advance yesterday.”
I dropped the reins and felt myself takin' my gunfight stance. My hand rested on my belt above my gun. Until I felt Chrissy standin' next to me.
“You are the one mistaken, Bremerton.” I purposefully omitted the Mister this time. “We agreed upon a price, but you did not pay me.”
I felt the eyes of all the other customers watchin’ me. Chrissy gentle touched my gun arm. “Not important,” she whispered. “Prove you better man.”
Her words strengthened me. This little man was unimportant no matter what he thinks of himself.
“I paid you once and I will not pay twice for the bracelet,” he yelled at the other people more than at me.
I moved my hand from my gun to around Chrissy’s waist. I looked over my shoulder and Heyes was standin' there leanin' on one of the poles holdin’ up the side of the shop,
“Bremerton, I hope your daughter enjoys her bracelet,” I said as cordially as I could. “Just know that I won’t be acceptin’ any future work from you or anyone you refer to me.”
“Hmupft!” He drove away quickly.
Heyes had a grin on his face as he walked with me to check in the remainin’ customer. He said softly, “As Gramma Curry always said, Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you. You did good, Kid. Proud of you.”
As I watched Heyes and Chrissy return to what they were doin’, I did the same.
“Nicely handled, Mr. Curry,” my next customer, an older lady with two broken ladles, told me. “You are a man of class and character.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” I managed to reply lookin’ down so she wouldn’t see me blush.
I felt Chrissy’s hands on my shoulder. “Jed Curry, good man,” she said.
And those words from her mean everythin’ to me.