A rainbow pebble glimmered in the darkness beneath the Raining Stairs, held loosely in the lifeless hands of some unfortunate who’d fallen.
Hanson Perry knew best where to scavenge for surprises. He’d found a catch down here before, but this was something special. The pebble, small and smooth, glowed every color in his hands. He’d never seen its like, although he thought he knew its worth.
He climbed the stairs, but carefully, as yesterday’s rain poured down the stone steps. Up ten flights, across the grand, crumbling bridge, and up more winding stairs, he burst forth into daylight at the Skinside vendor carts. There he found Theresa Palm, and sold the pebble for a tattered raincoat and a hot dog.
When Perry left, Palm locked her cart, and laced her climbing boots. Down an alley, up rickety steps, across the churning river, she found the tarmac road that led to Orchard Way.
She reached Magesto’s Jewels and put the pebble on his counter. Canny but professional, she wore Magesto down, and made off with a bag of coins before he could think better.
Magesto placed the pebble in a leather box, all snug with satin lining, and stowed it in the pocket of his patched-up scarlet blazer. On Tuesday night, he oiled his beard and drank a fiery shot of old cologne, and headed for the escalators up to Pearl Estates.
The stacked and crooked streets of the Mosaic glowed beneath the Parcel Garden balcony, where young romantics gathered to dally on the grass. Sir Bennet, twice Magesto’s size, lounged beneath a mango tree.
Magesto knelt before him as he offered up the box. “My love, behold – at last, a gift to earn your praise – it glows as bright as any star above.”
Sir Bennet slapped Magesto with a long and spindly hand.
“What foul joke – you’ve never seen a prism horse’s shit? It glows because it's toxic, you grasping farmer’s son.”
He hurled the pebble off the edge. It clattered off a rooftop and rolled into a gutter, where time and rain returned it to the darkened wards below.