Jared arrived home in time for dinner with his parents and younger brother. His father asked him about the upcoming baseball season while his mother asked him about his classes. Jared, not disposed to conversation, grunted some answers back.
As soon as he could, Jared excused himself to his room and curled up on the bed with his phone. Later, he got ready for bed. As he undressed, the medallion fell from his pocket. He'd forgotten about it. He picked the gaudy item off the floor and placed atop his dresser. He was too tired to be curious.
The next morning after a shower and quick breakfast, he headed to school again. He left the medallion behind on his dresser, where it remained, waiting for him.
He had baseball practice after school, which went reasonably well. The coach, in a good mood, told him that he liked his form. "I like it, too," Jared joked.
"There's always room for improvement," added the coach as he hunched over a clipboard.
"He's right, Webster," shouted Monroe Barker, the team's shortstop. "Take it from those of us who have seen you in the showers."
Coach ignored the taunt, but Jared's face flamed. Despite his attractive looks and decent physique, the lack of endowment hinted at by Monroe bothered him. He surreptitiously surfed websites to research information about how long he could hope for a delayed growth spurt in that department. Most sources indicated he was probably as big as he was going to get, but he clung to the fact mentioned at several of the sites that penis growth could continue into a young man's early 20s.
After each research session, he would later get a barrage of advertisements from the lucrative market for pills, lotions, and devices that claimed the potential to increase penis size. Although curious, he always ignored them, mostly because he could not afford the cost of the solutions. Besides, he wasn't some pathetic loser; he simply would have liked to be just slightly bigger.
That particular shortcoming remained on his mind the rest of the day. He was still thinking about it when he returned home, walked into his room, and immediately noticed the medallion on the dresser where he'd left it.
"I wonder," Jared thought to himself. "Could I get some cash for this gaudy thing?" If he could get the money, perhaps he could try that lotion from Chinese apothecaries touted in some of the recent unsolicited ads.
Jared picked up the medallion and shoved it into his pocket and decided to walk a few blocks to a pawn shop he passed each day coming to and from school.
He had almost reached the shop when he saw something shiny in the street near the curb. After checking for oncoming traffic, he stooped and picked up a horseshoe. "Strange," he said aloud. He started to toss the U-curve of metal back onto the street but hesitated. "Don't these things bring good luck?" Considering the purpose of his venture, he couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Sliding the horseshoe into the pocket with the medallion, he continued to the pawn shop.
One other person, perhaps the owner or an employee, sat behind a counter. He barely looked up at Jared as he approached.
"I have something that I'd like to see if it's worth anything," Jared said.
The man got off a stool and stood. ""Let's see it, kid."
Jared fumbled in his pocket, trying to extricate the horseshoe from the medallion. He pulled out both items, holding them together in one hand. He felt a strange but fleeting sensation before he put the horseshoe back into his pocket and handed the medallion to the man.
"Where'd you get this?" The man said.
Jared hadn't considered the possibility of that question. "Family keepsake," he lied quickly.
"I'll give you 25 bucks for it."
Jared had really hoped for more. "I'm no expert, but it looks like gold."
"Just a bit of gold plating," the man said. "But, you're a new customer. How about thirty-five bucks?"
"OK," Jared said. Once the transaction got completed, the man counted out three ten dollar bills and a five. Jared put them happily into his wallet and left the store. He had gotten about half a block when he began to feel really strange.
Things got a whole lot stranger when he felt an itch and reached to scratch his right ear. He screamed when he felt a furry, elongated version of his own ear beneath his fingertips. "What the hell?"