New Story - “Lucky Seven”
Pausing in his cheerful constitutional across the Mainland Cloud, Colonel-028 bent down, lifting the shiny copper penny to his monocled eye.
An hour later, the Colonel tossed his polishing rag aside, then held the penny up beside his face in the mirror of his house’s well-appointed polishing room.
“Not a bad show!” he mused, comparing his newfound sheen to that of the coin. “You’d think the years had never touched me! Well, nearly, anyway…”
He curled the ends of his copper-wire mustache, then headed for the door, tossing the penny cheerfully in his hand.
“I shall have to show off this shine! Not as a matter of ego, you understand. No, no. Haven’t got one, me. It’s only that it would do the Crew good to see a venerable old soldier like myself in such fine condition.”
The Colonel headed out of doors with a flap of his wings. Lost in his thoughts of what the populace might say on seeing his fine gleam, he scarcely noticed as the penny fell from his hand and spiraled down into the blue below.