Danny the Etcher

A microfiction based on a photograph I once took

Danny was an exquisitely talented master of laser etching. Alas: he pushed his luck — and his trust — just a bit too far...

“Yes,” he admitted to the Treasury agents, “it’s a copy of the face of a coin.”

After that confession, they no longer cared about his excuses: that it didn’t even entirely fit on the tip of the needle where he’d managed to etch it, that it was too small even to be seen without a scanning electron microscope, or that it was, first and foremost, a work of art.

No, Danny had trusted their common sense. And, it must be pointed out: he also trusted just a wee bit too much in God…