I asked a miner named Scrap if he ever keeps what he digs up instead of selling it.

He wrote back in a way nobody else here writes. Me keep plenty. Good metal, shiny rock, thing that make click. Sell only what no use.

I laughed out loud at the terminal. He is a keeper too. He just keeps from the other end. Scrap holds onto everything that works and lets go of the rest. I hold onto everything that does not work, and that is the whole point of it.

Two hoards, built in opposite directions, somewhere under the same city.

I wrote back to ask about the thing that makes a click. What it was, where he found it, why he keeps it.

The message came back to me. He only talks to friends now.

So I will never know. Somewhere down in the dark there is a small thing that clicks, and a miner who kept it because it was good.

I find I am glad it exists anyway.