The Coat That Wouldn't Come Off! by A. A. Augustine

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On one particularly cold, dark day in November of that year, they finally had to sell thefamily estate and their last car. Later on that same day, they moved into a two room, run down,shanty-shack of a house on the outskirts of town in an old corn field with one of their old gardnersand his family who helped to took care of the estate.The situation now seemed to grow more bleak with each passing day.But as hope always seems to do. Hope rose.Something wonderful began to happen amidst all the darkness.The entire family had all taken to working odd jobs on the kindness of many businessowners in town and everyone, even Johnny, pitched in.Johnny's Dad was now, ironically, the janitor for the company he once owned and had beenin the family for generations.“Once the king and now the pauper!” he would jokingly say when he returned home everyevening worn out and disheveled from the first true days work in all his pampered life.But Johnny’s father seemed to find a true dignity and certain happiness in that labor andthis was a great lesson for the entire family during that time. Those who were all primp and proper.Soft hands and manicured fingernails and dinner at 5:30 sharp and weekend trips to the lake.Johnny’s father would come home and tell Johnny about his day and always have the beststories. In all the time Johnny had been alive, they had never spent so much quality time together.The entire family soon began to realize a good many things about the world and their placein it. Rich or poor.Most nights, you could find Johnny and his family talking well into the night and Johnnycould sense a real change among everyone. Something real. Something grounding. Something humble and good. Not at all what they had come to expect from such dire circumstance. It mayhave been an impossibly difficult and trying time, but there was a true sense of togetherness that theyhad never experienced before.Something right and true was afoot and it enveloped each one of them.But there was still, the looming problem of Johnny’s health and the coat. Like a cloudstubbornly refusing to dissipate to the possibility of sunlight. All they could do now was take head,survive and enjoy what time they had left as a family and with Johnny. Now after losing everythingelse, all that they had was each other. And that was real and more than many people have and theycherished the moments together now unlike ever before.Johnny had even taken a job at the general store and was now a bag boy for Marvin theclerk who had cashed him out on that fateful day which seemed like a lifetime ago. The store and it’sstaff loved having Johnny around as it was pretty profitable to have a local celebrity working there.Johnny’s fame still loomed large in the local region and this in turn, of course, increased business.One morning, on his way to work, Johnny decided to trace his old route to the store via theestate where he grew up. As Johnny walked, he thought he would cut through the alley where he sawthe man in the doorway. And as he approached the alleyway, Johnny thought about all he had beenthrough this past year. He remembered how he wouldn’t even spare a penny to give the old man withthe dark and desperate eyes and the cleaning rags he was wearing on his old, frail body and whathorrible things he said to him. Johnny felt sick to his stomach and sad for the man and sad for himselfand sad for his family and sad for a world in which these things have to happen. The old man in thealley and Johnny now shared a lot in common with each other. Him and the old, desperate man in thecleaning rags.“Who would have thought?” Johnny pondered to himself as he headed toward the cornerof the alley about to enter it. Who would have thought indeed?…As he pondered his fate, Johnny began to come to wonder if he somehow, subconsciouslycame this way in the hopes that he might see the old man again and make amends for being so cruel.His new life had taught him a great deal and he thought about the events of that day many times whenhe was in bed at night and would even have dreams of that day occasionally. They would haunt andtorment him. Retracing the steps and decisions of that day. But in his dreams, he would always makethe better decision and he would always curse the morning when it indifferently came.Now approaching the foot of the alley, Johnny thought to himself“If I ever see that poor, old man again I will apologize for being so unbearably mean anduncaring and try to make it right.”
Up the alley he went. Walking up and around the second turn and off to the left.And low and behold, what did he see when his eyes adjusted to the darkness in theblackened-brick alleyway, but old man once again. Right where he was that fateful day. Johnny couldhardly believe his eyes.Even from where Johnny was standing he could see that the man was sleeping, curled upin a ball, shaking from the cold with nothing on but an old sweat shirt stuffed with the same cleaningrags he was covering himself with on that fateful day Johnny first saw him.He now wore some ratty, torn jeans and a scarf that was barely a scarf anymore and an old,oily and torn woolen hat over his head that didn’t quite fit right and was far too small to really keephis head warm. He was using his hands as pillows and had no gloves on at all and it was almostChristmas time and getting truly cold out. Far too cold for someone to be laying in an alley like this.The site of the man in that moment affected Johnny deeply and without a thought in hishead, Johnny immediately ran to the man and startled the him out of his sleep. Johnny was makingsuch a commotion running toward the man that he cowered into the doorway thinking the might bemugged.As Johnny drew closer, he extended his hand out to shake the man’s hand and said in shortbreath still huffing from his excited run greets the man.“My names Johnny Wisken, It’s nice to meet your acquaintance sir!”As Johnny's hand was protruding into the space between them, the old man’s face gave wayto realization and Johnny was quick to notice as he tended to get that sort of thing a lot down at thestore.“You probably recognize me from the papers!” Johnny said as matter of fact.“Why sure, sure, of course, that's were I’ve seen you before, my boy!” The old manexclaimed exuberantly.“That’s where I’ve seen you. And that coat! Why, it’s...it’s enchanting! ““Enchanted, is more like it sir“ says Johnny“Please, sit down! Sit down!” implored the man as he cleared a spot in the doorway withhis fingerless gloves for Johnny to sit.“ I wish I had something to offer you Johnny, but as you can see, I don’t have much.” Saidthe man seemingly embarrassed of his situation.“ It’s OK, sir!” I don’t have anything to offer either.”As the words left his lips, Johnny suddenly became so overrun with emotions for himself,for the old man and all that he and that coat had put his family through the past year that he just fellapart and to pieces right then and there on the door stoop with the old man.Johnny flung himself like a tossed horse shoe on top of the old homeless man. Crying sohard that the words didn’t even make sense until he caught his breath for the first time a few minutesin in the mass of garbly-gook remorse and regret he was feeling.Johnny apologized over and over and over and over again to the man for ever being somean to him and sloppily, disjointedly, through his torrent of tears and snot and hiccups recountedthe day that he wouldn’t give the old man even a penny and insulted him and ran away into the storeand right into the coat to have his life and his families lives and fortunes changed forevermore.He recanted the entire year to the old man in a way only a child could. Compressing theentire traumatic chain of events into a single banshee like wail that lasted at least 10 minutes. Withplenty of ...and then… and they… and I… and on and on and on… he wailed.As Johnny’s tale and tears subsided and his breathing pattern returned to normal and hishiccups melted into the slow rushing wash of release, Johnny asked the man to please, please forgivehim for ever treating him the way he did that fateful day.“ I understand Johnny.” Said the man sympathetically. “Sometimes we all do things weregret and wish we could go back and change. But it’s part of life and learning. The important part toremember is to live life forward with those regrets and learn the lessons and apply what you’velearned.”The old man told Johnny that he didn’t hold any hard feelings to those who don’tunderstand or are fearful of him. And honestly, he didn’t even remember that day, but thankedJohnny for his kindness and forgave him.As the old man was talking, Johnny, for the first time, noticed how frail and weathered theman looked. How his clothes wouldn’t keep a bear warm during a fall breeze and how his eyes were
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The Coat That Wouldn't Come Off! by A. A. Augustine

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