Monica wandered from the Hall of Healers thinking about the riches she had just received. This was more than she had ever held in her life. She thought about what was in store for her this afternoon. First, the sweets. I shall visit Mr. Pakar, the confectioner. He sells five small, sweet treats or one large one for an iron pin. I have around twelve friends, and with the rest of the youngers, maybe forty total kids who I should give a treat to, even if I don't know them very well or get along with all of them. How much will I need. My parents always said math was important, but I really wasn't good at it. I can see why they think I need to know it better. Now, to figure this out. I have five silver. The conversion of coins in Khehep is as follows:
1 gold regals = 10 silver hawks
1 silver hawk = 10 copper jobs
1 copper nob = 10 bronze bits
1 bronze bit = 10 iron pins
Above a regal were beast cores but I had never seen them. I had never held a regal, but I had seen them. These beast cores were the gem hearts of demon-altered creatures who got too close to the dark rift and were warped in some way.
Anyway, back to what I have. I have five silver hawks. This means I have 500 iron pins. If I spent a bit for everyone, it would be 40 pins, or 4 bits. This means I'll have four silver and six bits to give to the orphanage and the school. This was easy math. Two hawks and three bits to the school and two hawks and three bits to the orphanage! Now, where should I go first?
I guess, I should go to the confectioner's first just to make sure everything is as I thought. I don't eat a lot of sweets because my parents tell me they aren't good for children. Too much honey and the children are spoiled. I really wouldn't know. I've never had too much honey. A little on a biscuit on a special occasion, but usually fruit jam. I don't indulge in a lot of sweet treats. I do like them though.
Walking through town and seeing all the wares out for sale was tempting. I could take some of this coin and just buy less candy. I could use some new winter breeches. My old pairs were patched many times over. No! I told the king I would buy sweets and donate. There sure were a lot of things to think about when you have a lot of money, but I have to keep in mind, this is not my money. I didn't work for it, I didn't earn it, it was given to me. Somehow, it's not the same. I don't appreciate it as much as I should.
In less than ten minutes, I found myself at Mr. Pakar's shop. He was putting a bunch of stuff on a cart arranging it to be easily grabbed, but high enough from the ground to be sure the smaller children couldn't reach it but could still see the stuff that hung from the top or leaned over the sides.
"Hi Mr. Pakar. I need to buy some sweet treats. I want enough for forty children. Can I get enough with four bits?"
"Good afternoon, young Miss Cooper. You seem to be in a hurry. You wish to buy four bits worth of candy? Four bits is a lot of candy, you will be sick for days," he looked at me closely. "Out of curiosity, how did you come by four bits?"
Being cautious as it would be extremely unlikely for anyone my age to have five silver unless they stole it, I explained, "I was given a silver to buy sweets for my friends and the other children, but I have to return the rest with a note saying how much I spent from you."
"Well, I was just preparing my cart for the festival, but I can sell some now. I won't even charge festival prices, since I wasn't ready yet. Do you want large treats or small, Miss Cooper?" Mr. Pakar grinned at the thought of not leaving his shop this afternoon and already gaining nearly half a nob in one transaction. He didn't have a lot of overhead, owning the shop and the house, and while he created sweets, his wife was an apothecary, using the better honey and sugars to soften the harsh taste of many of the medications she stocked. The leftovers he didn't have to buy, as she accounted for the waste for every medicine she sold. It was win-win, and he got to see the joy and smiles of children that he never had as they enjoyed his treats.
I thought for a moment and couldn't decide. "Can I get half of each?" This way, I can give large treats to the bigger kids, and smaller treats to the smallers."
Nodding, he walked back inside his shop. His shop was just a small portion of the apothecary shop, the rest was his wife's. He began making two sacks of treats, one filled with larger treats, sticks of honey, fruit-flavored sugar crystal sticks, and one for smaller treats, small pill-sized bits of packed sugar or crystal sugar made from heating sugar watch then letting it cool rapidly. It usually broke into parts making it a perfect hard candy to put in your mouth and let dissolve for a while. Small chunks of this hard candy were his "small treats." If the right roots and such were put into the kettle, they were considered medicine, but this was his medicine for children. It cured the blues from rainy days, healed small bumps, made visits with long winded adults tolerable, along with many other childhood ills. He didn't care about a profit. All the ingredients were already covered in the apothecary expenses. He just liked seeing children smile.
After filling the two sacks with treats, he brought them out and handed them to Monica with a twinkle in his eye. He said, "I think this will give you your money's worth. Many children will be happy with you after this. All I ask of you is the four bits, Miss Cooper." With this, he held out his hand.
Monica looked into the packages and realized there was a lot more sweets in there than she thought there would be. Handing him one of the silver coins from her pouch, he returned 9 nobs and six bits. She looked puzzled. Didn't I hand him a silver? He gave me too much.
Seeing her confusion, and believing she thought he shortchanged her, he explained. "You handed me one hawk. One hawk equals ten nobs or 100 bits. This means you get 94 bits back. I gave you 9 copper and four bits. I would never cheat you. I always wanted children of my own, so I believe they are special and deserve to be cherished, not cheated."
I thought back. Realizing I messed up my math, I smiled at him. Math really was annoying. "Thank you. Can I give you one of the nobs back and get 10 bits?" Taking care of all this was really putting my math skills to work. I didn't like math at all.
"Of course, Miss Cooper." he took one of the reddish coins from her hand wandered inside the shop and returned with ten bronze bits. "Here, Miss Cooper. Take your dad aside and tell him I will have sweet pocket pies at the festival. Mr. Becker and I are doing this together. I know he likes the meat pies and the fruits. I know they ruin his supper, but he likes them a lot. Mary is making desert pies too, so he will have a lot of great choices."
Knowing her dad's love of pocket pies, particularly the ones her mom never finds out about, she replied, "Yes, Mr. Pakar. Dad will spend way too much, but he'll love every single bite."
Wandering through the streets, I walked to the green in the center of town which extended from the well house to the town hall. I knew Sarah and Joan Becker would be there around now. They were my age, but always got stuck getting the water buckets for their dad's bakery. Their dad was Liam Becker, and he owned the largest bakery in Milltown. There were two more in the keep as well, but Liam wasn't really in competition with them, nor did he want to be. he didn't have to work nearly as hard, nor travel up and down the hill to the keep every day.
Since Sarah and Joan turned 7 and 8, they got the chore of fetching water. This meant their older brothers could all work in the bakery now, while they did more of the running.
Approaching the well, she walked up to them. "I have sweets. Want some?" They weren't my best friends, but sometimes, I helped when they needed it. Carrying two buckets of water on the yoke got tiring quickly and filling their barrels to make so much dough every day took many trips. Plus, when I helped, they gave me free bread of pies. The two brown-haired girls looked excited. Carefully removing the yokes, they looked to see what I had brought. "I have to share with everyone, so don't take too much."
Taking a large treat each, the responded in near unison, "thank you," before placing them in their mouths to hold while they reacquired their burdens. Joan looked as though she would ask me for help, but her sister helped balance the yoke properly, so she still had one hand free for her treat.
Continuing through the green, I gave out treats to all the other children I could find. The carpenters were already on the green building rides for the festival then making sure they spun properly and were secure. They checked every peg and pin to make sure they were solid ensuring they wouldn't fall apart. The rides only needed to survive two weeks, but they wanted to reduce any risk of someone getting hurt. Despite the Hall of Healing being close by, they didn't want Master Whitehair giving any of them the look. That look meant he knew they could have done better and coming from him seemed to make all the adults in town cringe, even those people who weren't in his direct gaze.
After travelling through the rest of Milltown, passing out treats, I discovered I still had a lot more than I thought. Maybe the other kids weren't taking their full share, or maybe Mr. Pakar gave me even more than I thought. Either way, I still had lots left over despite knowing I gave some to more than forty others.