I DROP A PENNY

ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN OVERLOOKING A TOWN AND THE SEA:

CLIMBER: "Wow! What a view! But...I should probably start down before it gets dark. Then again, it would be great to camp out up here and wait for the sunrise. Hmmmmm, what to do...what to do......."

CLIMBER: "I know...I'll flip a coin! Here's a dirty old penny...that'll do the trick. Here goes!"

CLIMBER: "Drat! It fell down the mountain!"

The penny, which has spent all its life in dark pockets, happily bounces down the sunny mountainside.

As if sensing it's new found freedom, it alternately bounces and rolls til it goes over another cliff...

...then comes a breathtaking fall down onto the roof of a house below.

It rolls off the roof into a rain gutter, and from there....

...onto a lawn where it bounces through the grass and onto the street.

It jubilantly bounces down into the town.

Down streets and alleyways.

Farther and farther down, past elegant townhouses.

It carefully bounces over the heads of some people...no use hurting anybody.....

...then water appears.

The penny bounces down to the very edge of the sea....

...where it skims along the water and sinks.

Down, down the penny plunges.

It drops so deep that the water gets dark. The penny experiences fear for the first time, since the darkness reminds it of countless pockets its been in.

It falls downward past denizens of the deep into an undersea vent.

The penny continues its downward journey through ever hotter magma. Finally the brave little penny, which traveled so far to get here, begins to loose its shape and melt. At the very moment it's about to break up and be lost forever, something happens......

Up in the sky above the sea a shaft of light appears.

Something reaches down into the Earth for the penny.

Time is reset to half an hour in the past. 

CLIMBER: "Should I stay up here overnight or start down now? Hmmmm...I'll flip a coin."

THE CLIMBER HESITATES, STOPS TO ADMIRE THE COIN.

CLIMBER: "Naw....It's such a beautiful little penny. I might drop it. I'll just pack up and head down."