They leaned in as the money man spoke:
You might be best, he said, to just put 500 out –
By which he meant, add three noughts.
I mean, do you really want that house?
They moved back from his veined red face.
No, they said. Thrice no.
We might be best, they chorused, to just put 500 out.
Just get the interest (well, such as it was).
They agreed on everything, even the small-town coffee;
Just the thing to whet the financial whistle.
Then they left, and the waitress’s face set tight
Thanks for that, John, got the picture now. Yes, it has the feeling of something longer being at the back of it. Enjoy it’s pithiness, in any case!
It stems from an overheard conversation.
They paraphrased 500,000 dollars, as the new rich do, by saying he would “put 500 out”; shorthand for putting $500,00 out on interest.
I should have made it clearer. It was going to be a short story but I was too lazy and turned it into wee vignette.
Ho John, always enjoy your vignettes. I can’t, however, grasp the crux of the described dialogue, that ‘putting out’ with those 3 zeros. I’m missing some tiny bit of information that will bring it all into focus. I feel all the characters (love that line about settling the cost of the coffee); I feel there’s some idiom I don’t know that’s blocking my full understanding.
Very kind.
Hi John..I’ve read most of your poems lately without commenting, no reason really, but letting you know they are appreciated,