The Power of God in the Head of Penny

It had been a long day,
turning into a long night
when I walked in to a gas station,
counting a stack of quarters
I had in my palm.

Upon my arrival,
the clerk made eye contact
with me;
and she had angry eyes.

She was pissed off.

I sensed nothing but contempt
coming from her towards me.
It was real.

I made my coffee
and stood at the counter to pay.

I waited a good two minutes- with
both of us in each other’s eyeshot.

She pretended to ignore me
out of the corner of her eye,
her obvious intention to frustrate my day;
and it was working!

I watched her attempt to count
a stack of lottery-ticket-receipts-
all connected to each other,
and she quickly got frustrated
from folding them back-up accordion-style,
she threw them on the ground
as hard as she could.

I admit that her frustration in not being able
to slam the papers down hard enough
to express her anger
as they slowly fluttered to the floor
was pathetically-adorable!

The game she was playing with me
became unfulfilling for her,
as she was more frustrated
than my body language expressed.

When she rang-me-up,
she looked me over and
noticed that I was dirty,
un-showered;
my clothes were dirty;
And I was counting change-
obviously not the person
whom she thought I was.

“Two Twenty-five.” she said.

I put a dollar bill on the counter
and five quarters.
(That’s $2.25.)

She handed me back
a single penny
as change.
…

The date on the penny was, “1975”.

Was that a change in her,
or was that a change in me?
…

I contend, Both!

I trudged into a gas station
to purchase a lonely cup of coffee
at two o’clock in the morning,
counting what little bit of change I had left in my hand

The clerk was a young woman,
tending to a powerfully large, black man.

A penny immediately dropped from my hand
ringing on the ground,
(a terrible, loud ruckus!)

Chip Van Hassel

which called the attention of all four people in the place
as I bent down
to pinch-pluck-it-up before it stopped spinning.

That particular gas station brewed it’s coffee fresh,
so you have to wait for it to brew.

As I impatiently watched it brew,
four Mexicans came in-
talking loudly to each other,
being annoying to those around them
on purpose.

As I felt their body language change
(clinically, as the result of their realizing that they would not be able to annoy me
enough to push my buttons,)
I began to get annoyed at their
childish mannerisms.

I ended up waiting behind them
at the counter
where they continued their senseless prattle,
further purposely being a disturbance.
Their intent was
to hold the line up
for as long as they could.

The clerk looked over at me and announced,
“Sir?”

Her and my eyes met.
“Just the coffee, Sir?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am.” I said.
“You’re good;
go ahead.”

She waved me on for a free coffee.

At that moment, those Mexicans realized:

that coffee was NOT Free!

I had earned it.

I knew it.

She knew it.

They Learned it.
And all of That ^ happened
Because she heard me drop that penny;
it caught her attention
and united us as
The New Family Among Us.

Chip Van Hassel