Morgan 21

When Jenni’s husband suggested moving back to Gainesboro, Tennessee, she had tried to be supportive.

His father was getting older, and the family business needed another set of hands. Her husband had grown up in Gainesboro, and although he had moved away years earlier, he still talked about the town as though he had only left the week before.

Jenni had never lived anywhere quite like it.

Everybody seemed to know everybody else. People waved at cars they recognized, conversations stopped when strangers walked into a room, and news traveled from one side of town to the other faster than anything Jenni had ever seen.

She had only been there a few weeks when she stopped at the Dollar General one afternoon.

The cashier was a tired-looking woman in her fifties with graying hair and heavy shadows beneath her eyes. She smiled politely while ringing up Jenni’s groceries.

“You’re the one who moved here with Mark, aren’t you?” the cashier asked.

Jenni smiled. “That didn’t take long.”

“Nothing stays secret around here.”

“I’m starting to notice.”

Jenni paid with a twenty-dollar bill. The cashier counted out her change, placing the bills and coins into Jenni’s palm one at a time.

“Have a good evening,” the woman said.

“You too.”

Jenni dropped the change into her purse and headed outside.

Her bad luck began before she left the parking lot.

Her car started, but the screen on the dashboard stayed black. The radio would not turn on, and the clock blinked twelve o’clock even though she had set it that morning.

She shut the car off and started it again.

This time the screen worked.

“New car, my foot,” she muttered.

She stopped for gas on the way home. The pump accepted her card, asked for her ZIP code, and then froze.

Jenni waited.

Nothing happened.

She canceled the transaction and tried again.

The same thing happened.

After the third attempt, she went inside.

“The pump keeps freezing,” she told the clerk.

He glanced toward the window. “Which one?”

“Four.”

He pressed a button beneath the counter. “Try it now.”

Jenni returned to the pump. It worked long enough to dispense twelve cents worth of gas before stopping again.

She sighed and looked through the glass toward the clerk.

He raised both hands as if he had no idea what was happening.

By the time Jenni finally got home, she was already irritated.

She plugged her phone into the charger beside the kitchen counter.

Nothing.

She unplugged it and tried again.

Still nothing.

The charger was only two days old.

She tried another outlet. The phone charged for three seconds before stopping.

“Perfect,” she said.

Her husband looked up from the kitchen table. “What’s wrong?”

“Everything I touched today decided to quit working.”

“That bad?”

“The gas pump froze three times, the radio stopped working, and now my charger is dead.”

“Maybe the charger’s defective.”

“It’s brand-new.”

“That doesn’t mean it works.”

Jenni opened her mouth to respond, but the kitchen light flickered twice and went out.

Her husband looked up at the dark fixture.

“That bulb was new too,” Jenni said.

He stood and flipped the switch a few times.

Nothing happened.

While he searched for another bulb, Jenni emptied her pockets and purse onto the kitchen table. Receipts, keys, lipstick, loose change, and a handful of crumpled bills scattered across the wood.

One coin rolled away from the rest.

It was larger and heavier than the others.

Jenni picked it up.

The silver coin showed the profile of a woman wearing a cap. The date beneath her neck read 1921.

“This is strange.”

Her husband looked over.

“What?”

“This was in my change.”

She tried to hand it to him.

The moment he saw it, his expression changed.

He did not laugh or ask where it had come from. He simply stared at the coin.

“Where did you get this?”

“I just told you. The Dollar General.”

“Who was working?”

“I don’t know her name. Older woman, gray hair.”

He slowly turned the coin over.

An eagle spread its wings across the reverse side.

“Oh no,” he said.

Jenni laughed. “What?”

He placed the silver dollar on the table as though it might bite him.

“You need to listen to me, and I know this is going to sound crazy.”

Jenni folded her arms.

“I’m listening.”

“That’s the Morgan dollar.”

“I can see that.”

“No. It’s THE Morgan dollar.”

Jenni stared at him.

“The one everybody around here knows about.”

“I haven’t heard anybody talking about a coin.”

“That’s because you haven’t lived here long enough.”

He pulled out a chair and sat across from her.

“The story goes that a local man carried that silver dollar through World War Two. It belonged to him before he joined the Army, and he kept it with him the entire time he was overseas.”

“Why?”

“He said it was lucky. Supposedly, he carried it through battles, sickness, and everything else that happened to him. When he came home, he still had it.”

Jenni looked down at the coin.

“And then?”

“Someone stole it.”

“Who?”

“Nobody knows. At least, nobody admits to knowing. Some people say it was taken from his coat while he was asleep. Others say he lost it in a card game and claimed it was stolen because he was ashamed.”

“So nobody knows what really happened.”

“No.”

“But everyone agrees the coin is cursed?”

Her husband leaned back.

“That’s the general story.”

Jenni smiled. “You don’t actually believe this.”

“I don’t know what I believe.”

He pointed at the silver dollar.

“But I know the rules.”

“The rules?”

“There are four.”

Jenni grinned.

“Only four?”

He ignored her.

“First, the coin brings bad luck.”

“So it kills people?”

“No. That’s the strange part. It’s never dangerous.”

“No ghosts?”

“No.”

“No demons?”

“No.”

“No one gets dragged into the woods?”

“Not that I’ve heard.”

“What kind of curse is that?”

“The annoying kind. Card readers stop working. New batteries go dead. Light bulbs burn out. Phones freeze. Computers crash. Coffee makers stop brewing. Nothing serious. Just enough to make every day miserable.”

Jenni looked toward the dark kitchen light.

“Coincidences happen.”

“Maybe.”

“What’s the second rule?”

“You can’t get rid of it by throwing it away or spending it outside Gainesboro.”

Jenni laughed.

“That’s easy to test.”

“If you take it out of town, it comes back.”

“How?”

“Nobody knows.”

“Someone brings it back?”

“No. It just appears.”

“Where?”

“Dresser drawers. Kitchen counters. Glove compartments. One man supposedly mailed it to California and found it in his shoe the next morning.”

Jenni shook her head.

“That didn’t happen.”

“Probably not.”

“But you believe it?”

“I believe enough not to test it.”

She pointed toward the coin.

“What’s the third rule?”

“If you try to cheat, the bad luck gets worse.”

Jenni smiled.

“So the coin throws a tantrum?”

“Pretty much.”

“That might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“It doesn’t become dangerous. It just gets more stubborn. More things break. More things stop working. Then, after a day or two, it settles down again.”

“And the fourth rule?”

Her husband’s expression became more serious.

“You can only pass it to someone who lives in Gainesboro.”

“That doesn’t sound difficult.”

“They have to willingly accept it.”

Jenni shrugged.

“I’ll slip it into somebody’s purse.”

“It’ll come back.”

“I’ll leave it on a counter.”

“It’ll come back.”

“I’ll toss it into a donation bucket.”

“It’ll come back.”

“What if I give it to someone who doesn’t know what it is?”

“That works, as long as they accept it.”

Jenni stared at him.

“That’s awful.”

“It’s how the coin has been passed around for years.”

“So how do people get rid of it?”

Her husband looked down at the silver dollar.

“They wait.”

“For what?”

“For somebody new.”

Jenni burst out laughing.

He did not.

“You’re serious?”

“I’m telling you what people around here believe.”

“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”

He picked up the coin and slid it across the table toward her.

“I thought so too.”

“You had it before?”

“No.”

“You know someone who did?”

He hesitated.

“When I was a kid, a man who worked with my father supposedly had it for six months. His truck started every morning, but the radio never worked. Every watch he bought lost exactly fourteen minutes a day.”

Jenni laughed again.

“You people need better hobbies.”

That night, the television remote stopped working.

Jenni replaced the batteries.

Nothing.

She opened another package of batteries from the kitchen drawer.

Still nothing.

A few minutes later, the microwave beeped twice and went dark.

Jenni looked toward her husband.

He raised his eyebrows.

“Don’t say it,” she warned.

“I didn’t say anything.”

The next morning, Jenni decided to prove the entire town wrong.

She placed the silver dollar in her purse and drove to Cookeville.

“If it only works in Gainesboro,” she said to herself, “then that should solve the problem.”

She stopped at a small antique store and wandered through the aisles until she found a scented candle in a glass jar. At the counter, she paid with cash.

The clerk counted her change.

Jenni placed the Morgan dollar beside the register.

“I’ll use this too.”

The clerk picked it up.

“This is an old one.”

“It’s yours now.”

The clerk smiled. “I don’t see many of these.”

Jenni watched her place the coin beneath the register drawer.

“There,” Jenni whispered as she walked outside.

The rest of the afternoon went perfectly.

Her car started.

Her phone charged.

The radio worked.

She stopped at a restaurant, and the card reader accepted her payment on the first try.

By the time she returned to Gainesboro, she was smiling.

“I told you,” she said when she entered the house.

Her husband looked up from the couch.

“Told me what?”

“I spent the coin in Cookeville.”

He frowned.

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

“It’s gone.”

“For now.”

“It’s in a cash register twenty-five miles away.”

“We’ll see.”

Jenni rolled her eyes and went into the bedroom.

That evening, she changed into her pajamas and opened the dresser drawer for a pair of socks.

Something silver reflected the light.

The Morgan dollar sat neatly on top of her folded socks.

Jenni stopped breathing.

She slowly reached into the drawer and picked it up.

The same scratch crossed Liberty’s cheek.

The same tiny dent marked the rim.

Her husband appeared in the doorway.

“I wondered how long it would take.”

Jenni turned toward him.

“I watched the woman put it in the cash register.”

“I believe you.”

“How did it get here?”

“Nobody knows.”

She stared at the coin.

“This isn’t funny.”

“I never said it was.”

Jenni slept badly that night.

Her alarm failed to go off the next morning.

The coffee maker turned on but only produced hot water.

Her laptop refused to connect to the internet.

When it finally connected, the screen froze.

She restarted it.

The computer installed an update she had not approved and remained stuck at seven percent for more than an hour.

At the family business, every computer Jenni touched seemed to malfunction.

Invoices vanished.

The printer produced blank pages.

The card reader rejected three different cards before accepting the fourth.

One customer joked that the machines must not like Jenni.

She did not laugh.

On the way home, a warning chime sounded from the dashboard.

The check engine light came on.

Jenni gripped the steering wheel.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”

She called her husband.

“The check engine light is on.”

“Is the car running okay?”

“Yes.”

“Bring it by the shop.”

“You know what this is.”

“I know what you think it is.”

“You said the luck gets worse if I cheat.”

“I did.”

“You could have warned me.”

“I explained all four rules.”

“I didn’t think you were serious.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

The mechanic connected a scanner to the car.

No codes appeared.

He shut the engine off, restarted it, and the warning light disappeared.

“I don’t see anything wrong,” he said.

“Of course you don’t.”

That evening, Jenni placed the silver dollar on the kitchen table and stared at it.

Her husband watched from the doorway.

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking I’m tired of looking at it.”

“Don’t do anything stupid.”

“It’s a coin.”

“It’s an annoying coin.”

Jenni picked it up.

“I’m going for a drive.”

“Jenni.”

“I’m not giving it to anybody.”

“That isn’t what worries me.”

She drove toward the river as the sun began to set.

At the bridge, she pulled onto the shoulder and stepped out of the car.

The water below reflected the fading orange sky.

Jenni held the silver dollar between her thumb and finger.

“You want to ruin my week?”

She drew her arm back.

“Let’s see you come back from this.”

She threw the coin as hard as she could.

It flashed once in the sunlight before disappearing into the river.

Jenni waited.

Nothing happened.

She brushed her hands together and returned to the car.

The engine clicked but did not start.

She tried again.

It clicked twice, then started normally.

“You are not real,” she told the empty passenger seat.

The next morning, Jenni’s alarm went off two hours early.

The shower water changed from hot to cold every thirty seconds.

Her electric toothbrush stopped charging.

The toaster burned one side of her bread while leaving the other side pale and cold.

Her phone restarted three times before she finished breakfast.

At work, the internet went out the moment she arrived.

The printer jammed.

The copier displayed an error message no one had ever seen before.

When Jenni tried to open a spreadsheet, the computer shut down without warning.

Her husband called around lunchtime.

“How’s your day going?”

She looked at the dead computer screen.

“Fantastic.”

“You threw it in the river, didn’t you?”

Jenni said nothing.

“Jenni?”

“Maybe.”

He sighed.

“The coin doesn’t like that.”

“That is a ridiculous sentence.”

“Did it come back?”

“I haven’t seen it.”

“Look around.”

Jenni searched her purse, desk, and pockets.

Nothing.

That evening, she opened the silverware drawer to get a fork.

The Morgan dollar sat beside the spoons.

It was perfectly dry.

Jenni stared at it.

She closed the drawer.

Then she opened it again.

The coin was still there.

Her husband walked into the kitchen.

“You found it.”

“It was in the river.”

“I know.”

“It should be wet.”

“I know.”

“I hate this town.”

Her husband smiled.

“You’ll get used to it.”

The next morning, Jenni returned to the Dollar General.

The same woman stood behind the register.

The cashier saw Jenni approaching and immediately looked away.

“You knew,” Jenni said.

The woman sighed.

“I’m sorry.”

“You put that silver dollar in my change on purpose.”

“Yes.”

“You knew what it would do.”

“I did.”

Jenni placed the Morgan dollar on the counter.

The cashier stepped back.

“I’m not taking it.”

“You need to.”

“I already did my time.”

“How long did you have it?”

“Almost three years.”

Jenni’s anger faded slightly.

“Three years?”

The cashier nodded.

“Three years of card readers freezing, scanners beeping when there was nothing beneath them, and every light bulb in my house lasting about a week.”

“Why didn’t you give it to someone else?”

“Everybody knows what it looks like.”

The woman glanced at the coin.

“People around here check their change.”

“So you gave it to me because I’m new.”

The cashier lowered her eyes.

“I was tired.”

“You could have warned me.”

“And then you wouldn’t have accepted it.”

Jenni could not argue with that.

“I tried spending it in Cookeville.”

The cashier winced.

“Bad idea.”

“I also threw it in the river.”

The woman looked genuinely horrified.

“You didn’t.”

“It came back dry.”

“It always does.”

“You believe that?”

“I’ve seen it come back from worse places than the river.”

Jenni leaned closer.

“Like where?”

The cashier shook her head.

“You don’t want to know.”

Over the next two days, Jenni tried to pass the dollar to half the town.

At the auto parts store, she offered it to the cashier as payment.

He looked down at the coin and laughed.

“Nice try.”

At the diner, she left it beside her tip.

The waitress returned it before Jenni reached the door.

“You forgot something.”

At the library, Jenni offered it as a donation.

The librarian looked at it over the top of her glasses.

“I’ve lived here seventy-two years.”

Jenni placed the coin back into her purse.

At a yard sale, she offered the dollar for a fifty-cent picture frame.

The elderly man running the sale shook his head.

“I don’t need that kind of trouble.”

Word spread quickly.

By Friday morning, people were watching Jenni’s hands whenever she reached into her purse.

The bad luck had settled back to its usual level, but it remained constant.

The refrigerator light stopped working.

The television lost sound for half an hour.

Her phone charger only worked when the cable was held at a particular angle.

Every time Jenni tried to print something, the printer claimed it was out of paper even when the tray was full.

By Saturday afternoon, she was exhausted.

Her son had been asking for ice cream all day, so Jenni drove him to the small shop near the town square.

A young woman stood behind the counter.

She looked barely eighteen and wore a clean apron with a name tag that read KAYLEE.

Jenni ordered two cones.

“You just start working here?” she asked.

Kaylee smiled.

“Yesterday.”

“You from around here?”

“Not really. My grandparents live here, but I just moved in with them last week.”

Jenni felt the weight of the silver dollar inside her purse.

“Did you move here for school?”

“I just graduated. I’m taking a year off before I decide what I want to do.”

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

Jenni paid for the ice cream and looked down at her change.

Her fingers brushed against the Morgan dollar.

For a moment, she felt guilty.

Kaylee was friendly.

She was young.

She had just moved to town and knew nothing about the coin or the strange rules Gainesboro residents had lived with for generations.

Jenni thought about the frozen gas pump.

The broken charger.

The coffee maker.

The check engine light.

The river.

She took out the silver dollar and placed it on the counter.

“I’m feeling generous today.”

Kaylee stared at the coin.

“What’s this?”

“A graduation gift.”

“Really?”

“It’s an old silver dollar. Consider it a good-luck piece.”

Kaylee’s face brightened.

“That’s so nice. Thank you.”

She picked up the coin willingly.

Jenni held her breath.

Kaylee slipped the dollar into the pocket of her apron.

At that exact moment, her brand-new phone slid from the counter.

It struck the tile floor face down.

CRACK.

The entire shop went quiet.

Kaylee picked it up.

A jagged line ran across the screen.

“You have got to be kidding me,” she whispered.

Jenni took her son’s hand.

“I’m sorry about your phone.”

Kaylee stared at the cracked screen.

“It’s brand-new.”

“Sometimes things just happen.”

Jenni walked quickly toward the door.

Behind her, Kaylee called out.

“Thanks again for the coin!”

Jenni raised one hand without turning around.

When she reached her car, it started on the first try.

The dashboard screen lit up immediately.

The check engine light was gone.

Her phone connected to the car without a problem.

As she drove home, the radio played clearly for the first time in days.

Jenni should have felt relieved.

Instead, she kept thinking about the way her husband had explained the rules.

He had known everything that would happen.

The bad luck.

The return from Cookeville.

The punishment for trying to cheat.

The only way to pass it on.

She had laughed at him.

Now she wondered how many other stories Gainesboro had that everyone knew except her.

Jenni turned onto the road leading home.

Her son ate his ice cream quietly in the back seat.

When she reached the house, her husband was sitting on the porch.

Jenni parked, stepped out of the car, and looked at him.

“We need to talk.”

He smiled.

“You got rid of it?”

“Yes.”

“Who took it?”

“The new girl at the ice cream shop.”

He nodded slowly.

“Kaylee.”

“You already know her?”

“This is Gainesboro.”

Jenni walked toward the porch.

“I need to know something.”

“What?”

She stopped at the bottom step.

“Are there any other local legends, cursed objects, strange rules, or anything else about this town that you forgot to mention before we moved here?”

Her husband thought for a moment.

Then he looked toward the darkening woods beyond their yard.

“A few.”

Jenni closed her eyes.

“Of course there are.”