This piece of ancient mythology is courtesy of the Unicorn Challenge.
‘Have you got what you need for the toll?’
‘What toll?’
‘The one we’ll have to pay at the toll house up ahead. You do realise where we are, don’t you? Please tell me you haven’t come all the way to Greece to walk with me on this journey without researching our route?’
‘OK, so I only skim read the link you sent me. I figured you’d fill in the rest when I got here.’
‘Typical. The trail we are walking is the dried up river bed of the Styx. Up ahead is Charon’s cottage. Given there is now no river to ferry souls across to the underworld, the Gods set him up with a pension scheme. It’s funded by the tolls paid by walkers like us.’
‘Does he take plastic? I haven’t carried cash for years.’
‘He only takes coins.’
‘Can you lend me some and I’ll pay you back?’
‘No, I’ve only got enough for myself.’
‘So what happens now?’
‘You have to hang around for 100 years and then you get free entry.’
‘Damn that for a joke! I’ll just walk up the mountain and go around him and meet you on the other side.’
‘That’s Olympus, dummy. Do you think the Gods are going to let you get away with that?’
‘So what am I supposed to do for a 100 years?’
‘Think about how stupid you were to go along with the death of cash. Bye.’
Six Crooked Highways 
Ha! Nice one, Doug, and a unique take on the prompt. You never miss a chance to send up the so-called ‘progress’ in our society. Commendable that the Greek gods have set up a pension scheme. And if he has to wait 100 years for some contributions to come through, Charon isn’t much worse off than pensioners in the UK, where the qualifying age is steadily climbing.
NB: From next week, and for the following few weeks, the Unicorn Challenge will be published on Saturdays, since all true Scots will be flying home for the annual Unicorn Games and Nessie Spotting.
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Such is the time difference twixt those two great countries. 🙂
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I’m off on that trail, I always carry cash and card. I do pay the ferryman, it’s £1 to cross the River Stour and you put your coin in the bowl, he doesn’t take plastic and he doesn’t take you to the Underworld.
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Thank goodness for that, Janet. The Stour will do nicely for now; save the Styx for much later. 🙂
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Wonderful, Doug.
I love the concept of a pension scheme for good ol’ Charon!
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Gotta keep Charon afloat somehow when his work dries up.
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Fun! And no one was mauled, hacked, poisoned, strangled or raped … not yet.
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Nor will be in this story because they’re already dead anyway. Mind you, no promises on how they got to be that way. 😉
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I would expect nothing less.
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You know that does look like a toll booth! Wonderful, light-hearted spin on an old myth.
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Many thanks. 🙂
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You’re welcome 🙂
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I usually carry cash just in case. The other day I actually forgot and came to regret it. Only 99 years 11 months and 362 days to go! I keep seeing signs saying, ‘Cash – use it or lose it’!
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Great advice. Recently our village supermarket’s electronics went down and you would have thought Armageddon had arrived from the gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes of the local citizenry. On a serious note, once cash is gone, we are all slaves.
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Funny your story uses that cash only hook.
(The death of cash has a ways to go, imo. For instance, if I’m with a friend, leaving a store that has provided me with change, I sometimes wait until we’re in the middle of the parking lot and I’ll toss the couns over my shoulder.
You’d be surprised at the reaction of the other people.)
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… and you do that because ….?
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