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My Loafers

I like to jingle my pennies around in my pocket so that they make a small tinkling sound. My pennies are really shiny. They're lucky too. I was sitting on the edge of the memorial fountain on Lee Drive. Well, I was just admiring how the coins were shining in the sun. And I looked up and I saw that the sun was surrounded by a cloud. Sorta looked like a broken egg. But my momma a long time ago, when I was maybe seven, she told me that was a lucky sign. See, my momma was pretty superstitious and I got some of that from her. So, I fished out these two pennies, both of them made in 1962. And what's unique about that is my baby sister, she died when she drowned in our pond, she was two. Well, that was the year she was born. So, I decided they were really lucky. I think they bring me some kind of internal peace, you know?
Well, my favorite dream is to use my lucky pennies and put them in those fancy loafers they've got out now in those window shops on Dredford Street. Now, I would work to get those loafers, real hard. I mean, I would do anything to save up for some. I want the ones on the left bottom in the Brad Shoe's window. The loafers are real leather and this nice dark brown. I went in that store once. When I stepped inside, I could really smell all the new unused leather in that place. I remember closing my eyes and then hitting my tongue against the roof of my mouth really fast to make my trademark clucking noise.
When I opened my eyes, I found a slim brown girl looking at me. I just gave her my smile, and I think she smiled back. It was pretty long ago and you know how people get with their memories. But anyways I remember her saying my name and asking what I needed. She knew my name because I wear this name tag made out of white plastic. Some little boy named Jeff made it for me. His dad got one of those neat devices that make tags on green sticky plastic. Jeff spelled my name out really good for being so young. He spelled it K L I D E even though it's C L Y D E. But it was pretty close anyways. So, Jeff told me if I wear the name tag everyday everyone will know my name. See, I believe that if someone doesn't have a name, they're not a somebody. That's what I say. And I know I'm a somebody, so I wore that name tag from then to now, to make sure everyone knows I'm a somebody and not a homeless nobody.
Well, that brown girl said my name and then I said hers. She was a really nice girl, really respectful and everything. Not like a junkie, I was treated with high class respect from that brown girl. So I told her that I wanted to try on my brown loafers. That girl measured my feet and I'm not sure if she said I wore a 10 1/2 or 11 1/2, but I know it was a half size. She brought those puppies out in a nice blue box with a white and black picture of my loafers on the end. That brown girl gave me these bright white dress socks to put on. Then she slipped those shoes on my feet. Yep, I knew that they would be a nice fit. They glided on smooth like butter. But I couldn't keep them on too long in case I forgot the new feeling. I told that nice brown girl to save them for me in the back. I told her I would be back for them soon. So, she put the loafers back in the box with tissue paper and on a pink slip wrote my name on it to go with the shoes. She spelled my name on the slip the same way Jeff spelled it on my name tag, but I didn't care much. At least people knew that those shoes belong to somebody with a name.
That nice brown girl came back out with this small folded white slip. The slip had the price of my loafers. In blue ink it said $34.62 in large numbers. I knew right then that I would come back for my loafers because it had my lucky number. I still have that white slip. I put it in between the laces of my tennis shoes so I won't forget about my shoes. So far I've saved $8.28 for them shoes in this plastic bag I got. It's hard for me to save the money, but I know God is helping me through this time of need. I know because if he wasn't he wouldn't have given me the money.
I'm not really into going to church, but that Sunday morning I just had a feeling, you know. Well, I went into this small church on Main and Greenwood. The service already started so I sat in the back pew. I remember that the room was pretty dim, and I could barely make out the noses of the poeple there. I think I need glasses, but anyways, not too many people were there. Maybe three families and a couple of grand old folks, if you know what I mean. And that plate where people put their money in for God or something was being passed around. Well, when I was watching that plate getting weighed down with bills and coins, I knew why God led me to church that morning.
When the plate full of money got to me I heard His voice say that the money was for me. I knew no one else would understand so I just smashed the money down my knee socks and got the heck out of there. I went back to Brad's Shoes and that same brown girl was there. She helped me count out the money, but I was still $13.80 short. So, I put a down payment on my loafers, and I used the rest of the money to buy a bottle of shoe polish and a pair of those classy white dress socks. Because, you see, you need your socks to be as classy as the shoes. I still have those socks with me in my green pack-a-long. They're still in the plastic package it came in, and they've been waiting. You'll see. One of these days I'll stop jingling my lucky pennies and you'll find them in the slots of my brown leather loafers.