*1 slang : a 10-dollar bill
2 : sawhorse; especially : one with X-shaped ends
Not much change for a sawbuck. He'd had to buy a whole stack of envelopes, a book of stamps, a sheaf of paper and a pen, but only had one letter to write. The last letter, the last deed of a life unwound.
"seems a bit expensive"
"sorry?"
"It seems a bit expensive. I just want to write one letter."
"hey, if you buy it, its not expensive, if anything its underpriced."
"75 cents for a pen?"
"listen, you valued it at that or you wouldn’t have bought it… Can I help"
The bastard knew somehow.He would have valued it at any price. He heard the woman behind him take a deep impatient breath, he turned and helped her lift her groaning basked to the counter. He waited for thanks that never came then shuffled off.
He opened the door setting brass levers and rusty wire into action.The bell nodded hello or goodbye on its worn coil spring, its tongue rolled around its lips. The storekeeper looked up, the bright light skipping from his polished round head onto the oversize glasses and refracting onto the wall behind him.
"hope a fire starts in your eyelashes"
The shopkeeper waved. The door squeaked shut behind him.
