When Linda used to live in a rental apartment, she thought she got them from past tenants. And when she moved into her own place, she thought the builders dropped them.
After the repairs were finished in the apartment, but not yet brought in furniture, she saw a few coins in the middle of the room. The girl thought they had fallen out of the pocket of the craftsman who had laid the linoleum. Then she decided that the furniture installer had dropped the coins. After the floor was cleaned and all intruders left her apartment, her life took on a life of its own.
She found the first coins in the bedroom under the bed.
– How did they get in here? – the girl thought.
But then she forgot about them and went about her usual business. She found the next coins in the bathroom, and thought she had dropped them herself. Where the pennies had come from in her robe pocket she did not even think.
Sometimes she picked up a cup, and it was wet, as if someone had just rinsed it. Who pays attention to such things? That’s why Linda didn’t notice all the strange things that were going on in her house.
Sometimes small objects disappeared: one minute they were there, and then it was like a cow swept away. She even had to use folk remedies, which worked just fine.
– Shit, shit, joke’s over,” Linda mumbled, coaxing the unknown creature to give her back what she’d lost.
Then the thing was found, and the strangest thing was that it was lying in the most prominent place. As a rule, Linda put it down to her forgetfulness or absent-mindedness, and so she did not pay attention to such nonsense.
But over time, it began to happen more often, and some things were irretrievably lost, but the little things on the floor she found all the time. Once she found an antique coin from the tsarist times in the hallway. The girl was very surprised by the find.
– Maybe brought into the house on the soles of her boots? – Linda wondered.
Then she decided to take a coin to an antique store to see how valuable it is. The antique shop near the house was closed.
– I don’t want to go all the way across town,” Linda said aloud.
– Maybe I can help you in some way, I’m pretty good at antiques, – she heard someone’s voice when she was about to go to the bus stop.
As it turned out, the voice belonged to an older man who looked like a typical collector. Linda quickly explained her problem and put the cherished coin into the old man’s hand, but he immediately returned it to the girl without even looking at it:
– You take it back, I already know who gave it to you, it burns badly. It’s not just a coin, it’s payment for living.
– What do you mean? – Linda asked the old man in surprise.
– You already have a lot of them, if they have started to pay you with old moments. I will explain everything, but first I suggest that you sit down, because my legs are very weak. It’s up to you, of course, to believe it or not, but I must warn you.
Linda wondered what the gray-haired crook thought up to take the coin from her. The man began to ask if small objects were disappearing from her home, if she heard strange rustles, if coins had appeared before. Linda told everything to the best of her knowledge.
– I can congratulate you on the fact that you invited a whole bunch of evil people home, or rather, they picked on you themselves and brought their comrades, and you let them.
– What does that mean? – Linda asked.
– Evil creatures pay for their lodging with these coins. If they take offense at you, they will be naughty. If you have taken the coins, it means that you have accepted the payment. In time you will have troubles and problems, there will never be peace in your house, and you will eventually begin to stunt. They will wear you out!
– What do I have to do to get rid of them? – The girl was at a loss.
– Yes, nothing you do not need to do, just the next time you find coins, you do not take them for yourself, and throw it out the window with the words: “I do not take your payment, because I do not need tenants. As your money thrown out, and you from my apartment kicked out, if you do not go along with it! They’ll leave you quickly to find another place to live.
– And you won’t say anything about my coin?
– Forgive me, my daughter, but I don’t even want to look at it. It’s not yours. I don’t want them to get attached to me. I didn’t believe in them either, until I saw them with my own eyes, and now I feel it when I get my hands on a coin. But that’s another story, which I don’t think you would believe. I used to be a numismatist, but after that incident, even in the store I pay by card.
When Linda came home, she found another one on the floor, exactly the same coin. The girl opened the window and said the cherished words her grandfather taught her. At that very moment a light breeze rushed into the room, and after that the air in the apartment even became clearer. It was at that moment that she realized that the tenants had left her home.
