The Burning Coin

Looking dismally at the collection plate as it continued down the row with my dime in it, I reached again into the coin pouch of my wallet and felt the only other thing that had been in there: a larger coin of which I immediately knew the value once my fingers closed around it. Excited, I unearthed a quarter, and inspected it just to be sure I hadn’t been keeping it for any particular reason. On the back was a relief of the state of Michigan; the year, 2004. Well, I thought, I completed that coin collector’s map several years ago, so I don’t really need this.

Looking up again, I noticed that the collection plate had already made its way to the rows behind me. My first instinct was to jump up, run to the nearest plate, and drop the coin in, but for politeness reasons (I guess) I did not do so. I decided instead to deposit the coin into a collection plate after the service was over. This way it would cause much less of a scene, and the collection total would get bumped up by twenty-five cents. But my plan failed.

Instead, I helped many others gather bags of food from the stage and carry them into the “Pantry” (which is more like a kitchen, really) and went home immediately after–stopping first, of course, to get groceries at Kroger with my mom, dad, and Nana. So now this lonely coin is…on fire. There is simply no other way to explain it. It must be put to good use! And not for me, but for someone else, with good reason!

Perhaps I will carry it with me. After all, you never know who might be in need of exactly one quarter.

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