Bad Penny

"It's just a penny, Janie," Andrea said as she lifted a bag of groceries from the trunk of her car. "I find them everywhere. They don't mean anything. People just don't think they are worth enough to bend over and pick up."

"You don't understand, Mom." The younger woman took out the other bag. "She's trying to mess with my head."

Her mother shut the trunk and looked at her. "Nobody is trying to do that, Janie."

"But she is, Mom! Why won't you believe me? That penny wasn't there yesterday - and I know she put it there just so I would see it. I found one in my car today, too. She got in my car somehow. It was sitting right on the dash. I wouldn't leave a penny there. It had to be her."

The two women walked toward the front door as a gust of cold damp wind blew leaves across their path.

"You are letting your imagination run away with you, dear."

Janie stopped when she reached the steps and faced her mother. "No I'm not. You don't know her. You honestly don't think it is a coincidence that her name is Penny? That's why she chose pennies, don't you see? That's why I keep finding them everywhere. It's her way of scaring me."

"Why would she want to scare you, Janie?"

"Because she knows that I know about her. " She shook her head in disgust and stepped up the stairs to the small porch.

"That you know what?" Andrea said, following closely behind.

Janie whispered while she unlocked her front door. "That she's a drug dealer." She held the door open with her foot to let her mother in. "I stumbled onto the truth and now she's worried that I'll go to the police. You know, drug pushers kill for less."

When the two women were in the apartment, Janie shut the door behind them and peaked out the curtain while her mother set the bag of groceries on the kitchen counter. Andrea raised her voice slightly so her daughter could hear in the other room.

"How do you know she is a drug dealer, Janie? She seems like a nice girl."

Janie joined her in the kitchen and began unpacking the groceries. "It wasn't anything she said, really. I've just been putting two and two together. You should see the look she gives me when I happen to see her going up the stairs. Daggers! It's just a matter of time."

"That doesn't mean she is a drug pusher." Andrea opened the refrigerator to put in a quart of milk. "Maybe she is just unhappy. Maybe she is reflecting back the look she sees in your eyes."

"I don't know why I bother telling you anything," Janie said to her mother, her brown eyes flashing. "You never believe me; you are so naïve."

Andrea reached out to give her daughter a reassuring touch on the shoulder, but Janie backed away. Her mother spoke hesitantly.

"Will you promise not to get angry if I ask you something, dear?"

"What?" Janie frowned at her mother.

"Did you quit taking your Zyprexa again?"

Janie slammed a can of tomatoes down on the counter and screamed. "That has nothing to do with the pennies. If I want to quit taking those pills it is my business, not yours. You don't really care about me, anyway. You just want to control me. You don't care that my life is in danger. "

"Oh, Janie. We've been through this so many times." There were tears in Andrea's eyes. "You know you have to take your meds or you start feeling paranoid."

Janie wasn't listening, though. Her face was white with fear. "Look. There is a penny on the floor. She's been in my apartment. I'm not safe anywhere."

A movement in Andrea's peripheral vision caught Andrea's attention. She glanced up at the window in time to catch a glimpse of the neighbor, Penny, looking in as she passed by.

THE END