Bad Penny Makes Good

The Wallet and the Sidewalk

Not on your life would I ever trade or give this here up for any item or amount of dollars, and that's final! See this spot in my wallet here? Made such an indentation, a person can feel it. Want to know a little bit about my billfold?

Anyhow. This thing here...I've had had it since- I forget how long, but it's sure all the way back when I was in school. At least I reckon since a bachelor.

This ain't some cheapie or knockoff kind of wallet, either. Genuine cowhide I think. It don't wear easy. It's not all that special besides how old it is. Things back then wore a little easier. But something is different about this one, because of what happened to the backside of my billfold. Wanna know? If I just turn this thing around...

See that? Should be plain as the sun in daylight. This circle thing in the back. That ring? Want to know what put it there? If I tilt it just right, you can see...

That ring in the back. That's from a coin I put in there. Lincoln wore himself into this wallet. Look close enough and I bet he's giving a grin from the stories he knows from being in there so long. Heck, I'm smiling too just thinking about it.

Now, that there's just the funny thing about it all. I don't know how it happened. It just did. People say all sorts of things about chance. And, well, fate...and luck too. Well, I don't know which one of 'em is which, but maybe one day someone will come along and tell me what the right word is for it. And now wouldn't that be some luck? Sometimes I do wonder though. Many do say when all is said and done, it all just boils down to... What they call. Well, just a bunch of coincidence. But I'll tell ya what.

Wish I could remember on my own what day it was back at the moment. All I know is it was sunny out, but not hot that day. I was walking on the path beside the road, on the cement, and I saw this circle on the ground. Wasn't 'till I kicked it with the near side of the- Bottom of my shoe. The sole. I took a step, and whoosh. Almost landed on my- Anyone should know. But when I slid, I heard it. A metal scrape.

So I looked where I heard that thing...whatever it was, and I saw a round thing down there. Flat. All chucked up and black. Had all this, heck I don't know. Some kind of dirt or grime I suppose. But I picked it up anyway, and that's when I figured out it was a coin. Before that, I didn't know what it could'a been just by settin' eyes on the thing. So I took it and I saw part of- Part of it's outer ring there, I saw a little bit of light come off that thing... And I figure well that's gotta be copper. Almost put me on my backside. Once I figured that out I felt I might as well keep it since maybe I could get me something out of it later.

I put that penny in my pocket and that's where it stayed. I didn't have a use for it at the time, so...I kept it in there. Next day I ran out of clean pants. I wasn't doing nothing special in pair I'd been wearing, so I decided to let them go another day. It wouldn't be hurting nothing and I already had all my things in 'em from the day before.

Going on about my day, I did whatever it was I did. Work? School? I forgot which, but I remember coming home that day. Before I got there, I was coming back down the same sidewalk as before. Then I see something on one of the cracks by the corner. It was pretty busy for a corner I guess, being it was an intersection. People going- heading back and forth. Kids walking to school and back. Things like that is a usual day. By the time I was using that same sidewalk, it was getting towards the evening time. And I saw something there. I thought here I am all over again. I saw this... Well, a dark circle layin' between two slabs of the cement. The line. So I stooped over and picked that thing up...and I was sayin' to myself how I thought I had a coin that looked almost like the very same I was holdin' with my fingers. Could it really be?