Fair Trade

The Great Salt Mountain, or the GSM as Franklin and his friends called it, was the highest point around. He knew that because he had been taught it since he was a little boy. They all had.

They didn’t live on the GSM though. That would make no sense. To have to move around on a mountain. But it was good for finding the deer that like the heights and the moist plants. He had to find one today. Surely today would be his day. So many other boys had already brought one back to the tribe. Today he felt was going to be his day.

Suddenly there was a rustling behind him. Franklin stopped and squatted down behind some growth. Now he just had to be quiet enough for the animal to come out where he could see it and take his shot. Sometimes it was like they knew he was watching because he could hear them moving around but they stayed hidden. It must be something they are taught, he thought, when they are young.

As he sat hidden and waiting the rustling grew slightly louder and closer. This was going to be the day. He knew it. He held ready for the shot. His arm filled with the potential energy needed.

But then it happened. He started to see even before he heard. It was no deer at all.

“Franklin. Where are you? I know you’re here.” It was his friend Reno. He was named Reno after some place his father had been when he was a young finder. Franklin had never heard of such a place except for his friend’s constant reminder that such a place must have existed. He would always tell him “You know where my name comes from, don’t you?” Franklin would always say yes, but it didn’t matter; Reno would tell him again anyways. It was some area along the coast. A city or something. Or used to be. Franklin couldn’t remember that part.

He could tell Reno was trying to be quiet, but for some reason his friend did not yet possess that ability, and that more than anything, was probably why he had not yet got his first deer either.

“Over here Reno.” Franklin stood up and walked out from behind the growth. The hunt was over for now. Surely any deer that had been around had fled. He would have to start again later. Maybe on the other side of the mountain.

Seeing his friend now, Reno headed toward him looking excited about something. Probably he had found a new trinket. He did have a keen sense of finding. Probably something his dad had taught him, Franklin thought.

Reno was waiving something around. Franklin couldn’t quite tell what it was. It looked like a piece of paper, but why in the world would Reno be walking through the woods waiving a piece of paper. No doubt it was a new find of some kind. But what?

“You’ve got to see what my dad and I found.” he said waiving the paper about in the air. “I want to trade you for that token I gave you. Will you trade? Please trade. I like that token better; it’s shiny.” Reno had liked the token, but he had given it to Franklin for a little statue he had given him before that. That’s how it went. Reno liked to make constant trades in the goods he gave out. No one in the tribe ever really held on to anything he gave them for very long. It was kind of nice though, Franklin thought, this way you were always getting something new to hang on to.

“I don’t know Reno. I really like the token.” Franklin’s fingers found the token buried in his pocket, and he grasped it pulling it out through his layers of clothes.

“I know. I know, but you’ll like this better. Look. Look at it. It has your name on it. Your name Franklin, and a picture too!” By this time Reno was standing in front of his friend and Franklin could see that it was indeed a pice of paper. An odd piece of paper.

“Let me see it.” Franklin reached for it, and Reno let go of it into Franklin’s hand.

It certainly was odd, and yet there it was, his name. Under a picture of some guy he had never seen. Maybe his dad knew him, but he doubted it. Finder usually only bothered with stuff that was really really old. No one probably even knew who this guy was, but maybe he had been in their tribe at one time, long ago, Franklin thought. He did have the same name and that never happened in their tribe. No one used a name that someone already had.

“Do you know him? I know you don’t, I mean he’s probably from so long ago, but do you think someone might’ve heard of him?” Reno was certainly excited by his find. He seemed more excited about the paper than the prospect of getting the token from Franklin.

“I doubt it. You guys always find stuff that is so old. What do you think these numbers mean? Look at this big one hundred. Do you think there are 99 more of these somewhere?”

Reno shrugged his shoulders looking at the paper. “There’s just so much of it. I mean that old stuff no one knows anything about. Plus, that’s the only real stuff the traders pay for.”

Franklin kept looking at the paper, turning it over and over. It was kind of a greenish black color, and it had all kinds of numbers and letters and pictures on it; none of which made any sense to either of them. Knowing numbers and letters alone wouldn’t help figure out what these particular ones meant, thought Franklin. He wondered who could even begin to make sense of ID25929888C? It was just a bunch of numbers and letters. It had to mean something though, but what?

“Did you guys find any more of these? I mean the other 99?”

“No. Just this one. Some other stuff, but I thought you would like this since it has your name on it, and we’ve never seen one of’em before.”

“Yea. It definitely is an odd piece of paper.” Franklin didn’t think he’d want to trade his token for the paper if it didn’t have his name on it, but he knew he would even then. It was hard to refuse a trade with Reno, even if you did like what he was wanting to trade you for.

Holding the paper in his left hand, Franklin brought up his right hand and opened it up. The shiny token was sitting on his palm. He did like it because it was shiny. Silvery. This one had a picture of some long dead guy on it too. Both ancient guys looked kind of funny, and he hoped they hadn’t looked like that when they were alive. The paper was probably more more valuable anyways, he thought, because there had only been a hundred of them where as it looked like there had been one thousand nine hundred and seventy nine of the siver tokens. Franklin wondered if there had been the strange number letter combinations on the token. He thought so, but it was so old they had probably rubbed off a long time ago.

“I suppose I’ll trade. This paper is probably harder to find anyways. Plus it does have my name on it, and I like the building on the back. It looks big. Like our whole tribe could live in it.” Franklin kept turning it over and over thinking about the paper and the token and strangely about the deer he still needed to find.

“Well…well. It’ a fare trade you know. If I find something better you can always trade me back if you want. I won’t say no. Promise. You can trade back later for something else if you want.” Reno seemed like he was getting excited as if the trade might not happen.

“Calm down. Calm down. I’ll trade you.” It wasn’t that he could trade at a later time with Reno for soemthing else. He knew Reno, and he knew that he would be trading later anyways.

Franklin placed the token in Reno’s outstretched hand and folded the paper in half. With his right hand he put the folded paper back in his pocket where the token had been. Maybe this would be a better token, surely the silver one hadn’t worked.

Putting the regained silver token into a small pouch, then tucking it away somewhere, Reno smiled; excited that the deal was done.

“Now we can hunt,” Reno said, smiling, and picking up a spear Franklin hadn’t seen leaning up against a tree. “I hope we get something. I think we’re the only two.” Reno was still excited, but Franklin knew it was for something different now.

“I think we will Reno. I feel lucky now.” Franklin smiled back at Reno, his fingers still touching his new lucky paper token, and together the two headed off deeper into the woods. Toward the other side of GSM where their deer were waiting.


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