The Three Pennies

      I was standing outside of our house near the front porch talking to Charlie Martin about old man Howell next door and his old Model T ford with the rumble seat and how mad he got when it was left open in the rain overnight .He had come home late  from the bar down the street and forgot to shut it and there was a lot of water in it. The next morning when he came out with his lunch pail he cursed and mumbled for awhile, saw me, slammed the door and went to work . I am sure he felt dumb in front of an eight year old boy. 

     Anyway, Charlie said lets go to Ermers and buy an all day sucker. The sucker was Carmel covered with chocolate. It was about five inches long and was on a stick. You could chump on it for near a full day or you could share one with each other. It only cost two cents and we all loved them. I said, “ Charlie that is a good idea but I don’t have two cents”. How much do you have? Charlie put his hand in his pocket and came out with a pocket knife, a small ball of aluminum foil from his father’s Lucky strike pack of cigarettes, and one solitary penny. Things didn’t look good. Then I remembered that I saw three pennies on the little table we had in the hall.My father usually threw his change there when he came home.

     Now, of course I knew that the money was not mine and my father was dead against stealing anything. I also knew I could not get my dime allowance until the end of the week, three days from now. Never the less, I snuck into the house and grabbed the three pennies and beat it out the door. For some reason known only to God, my father came down stairs, saw his change was gone, and came flying out the door. I heard his stomping and I quickly threw the three pennies into the bush standing next to the porch. My father asked me “did you take the change off the table?” I said, “No I did not” I knew I looked guilty; I always did when I tried to lie. He looked at me with anger and disgust and grabbed me to pat me down. There was no change in my pocket, of course. Now he was embarrassed and ashamed of himself for unjustly accusing me of stealing. He said he was sorry and turned away to leave.

     Fate took a hand. He bumped the bush and the three pennies fell out and clinked on the walk. From here on, everything went in slow motion. He turned pale and he then turned red. I watched as sweat came out on his brow. I had stolen and lied and then I had him apologize for nothing. Never had I seen him so angry. He took me up to my bedroom, yanked down my pants and walloped the bejesus out of me. My mother made him stop after awhile. The physical pain is long gone but the memory of the look on my fathers face is with me to this day, decades later.

    Needless to say my criminal career came to an immediate halt by the porch out front of the house.

    Incidentally, Charlie Martin disappeared when the first coin hit the walk.

Raymond Morrow