A Penny For Your Thoughts

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Josh sat with his arms crossed around his slight frame and an apathetic expression, straight out of the defiant teenager handbook.

He glared at his therapist through his matted blond hair which fell across his face. “You want me to do what?” Josh asked incredulously.

“Before you come back next week, I want you to sit with your feelings and write down whatever comes to mind.”

Dr. Redding repeated, while handing him a little black book. “Dude, the last thing I need is more homework.” Josh muttered. “Unlike homework, there’s no right or wrong answer. This assignment comes judgement free . I just want you to get the thoughts which are running through your mind out and on these blank pages.”the doctor explained.”

His intention was to have Josh deal with his feelings of of grief in a more productive way than he had been. Josh’s grades were dropping and his room at home had become his fortress of solitude.

His Mom’s death had hit him hard. After she lost her battle with cancer, he had spent the last three months filled with despair. His Dad watched him go through 4 out of the 5 stages of grief but Josh seemed trapped in the depression stage with no sign of acceptance in sight. His Dad thought therapy could help. He begrudgingly agreed to go but he didn’t see the point. It wouldn’t bring his Mom back.

After his session, Josh waited for his Dad to pick him up. Josh was more than capable of walking home,

just as he had walked from school to his psychologist’s office. However, his Dad didn’t want him walking in the dark. Waiting wouldn’t have been so bad if he hadn’t forgotten his phone this morning. Without it, each minute that passed felt like an eternity.

He sat on the bench outside the doctor’s off staring at his untied shoelaces. When he became bored with that, he watched people going in and out of the office building, guessing what type of profession they might have. He grew tired of that game and figured that he still had at least 30 minutes to burn before his Dad arrived.

He looked down at the journal and sighed. He picked it up and began to snap the band which was wrapped around the outside of it, meant to keep the journal safely shut. “Snap, snap, snap” cracked through the air as he continued to rhythmically pull the band up an inch and then released his grip. He hummed and snapped, snapped and hummed. “I’m sitting here...just me and my feelings” he said sarcastically. He finally quit fiddling with it and opened the journal to see the crisp, ivory pages. He took a pen from his backpack and flicked the top of the pen repeatedly against the page. “I don’t know what to write” he thought to himself. Moments later , the words started to flow. “I’m mad!”he scrawled in big, bold letters. “This sucks!!” fell below his first comment.

“I hate this!” he continued.

The pen was now moving furiously. He turned the page. He wrote without stopping.

A tear fell onto the page and he wiped his eyes with his free hand. He looked at the last thing he wrote,”I feel so alone.” He used the corner of his sleeve to stop his dripping nose. He took a deep breath and tipped his head back to look at the sky. “I miss you so much Mom.” His gaze fell from the sky to the sidewalk.The sun was slowly setting. Purples and pinks painted the clouds. The shimmer of the last few rays of light shown down on the ground. His eyes wondered from the cement to the grass. Something caught his attention . To the left of the bench, there was a coin in the mulch. He leaned over to pick it up. It was a penny. He couldn’t help but flash back to the times when his mom would try and get him to tell her what was on his mind. She’d playfully say, “A penny for your thoughts.” His heart hurt replaying the memory. Josh looked at the coin in his palm and pocketed it just as his Dad drove up.

That night, Josh took a break from surfing the web and remembered the penny in his pocket. He took it out and tossed it on his desk. The next thing he knew, his penny moved several inches, on its own, and attached to a magnet he had holding paper clips. He removed it from the magnet and looked at it more closely. “1944... wow, that’s old.” he said aloud. He flipped the coin over and the back looked strange. It had a different back then he’d ever scene. “Abe” was on the front but there was no Lincoln Memorial imprinted on the backside. He immediately Googled “Strange tails side penny” followed by “1944 penny that is magnetic.”The second entry brought up several links. Coinweek’s description had him captivated . “Rare, 1944 steel wheat penny was an anomaly. There were only two dozen minted due to it being a a production error.” A similar recap was found on Cointracker.com. His eyes darted down the screen and his mouth fell open. “Values can range from $20,000 for a coin in fair condition, well into six figures for one in certified mint state. ” He must have read each article about a dozen times. Josh was floored. He had just found a windfall. Besides the monetary win, it was an emotional win as well. Josh felt like his Mom was sending him a message that she was still with him. “A penny for your thoughts” he whispered and shook his head in disbelief. A smile spread across his face as wide as the clouds had spread across the sky at sunset. It was the first time he had smiled in more than three months.