Taiwan Probashi: Puja, 2019
The Adventures of a Penny
Hello, my name is Penny. I am a little penny. Right now,
I’m in Money Heaven. Let me tell you my story when I
was on the Earth.
I was born in the factory of General Mills in Minnesota,
USA. I stayed there for about three years, but my life
there wasn’t fun. Different coins were separated by
another machine, and since I was a penny, I was in the
Penny group. The other pennies used to bully me since I
was the darkest one in the lot. I had no friends and was
extremely lonely. When I was scooped up in the group
that was going to be delivered to the common people, I
was very delighted. There I met a dime and a nickel. We
played together on the whole trip. They were my first
ever friends! Then, some other coins and I were picked
to go to a person. The nickel was one of them too! We
were sent to a chemistry lab’s supervisor. We spent
most of the time playing and laughing. But then, the
nickel moved on and was given to someone else. I
became lonely again! Scientists probably are the messy
kinds of people, you know, because I used to fall on the
ground and stayed there unnoticed for days!
Several days later, the boss picked me up with three to
four other coins and gave us to another guy in his lab. I
wasn’t too excited about that though, because I would
still be lonely. However, the man’s daughter, cared for
me and never left me on the floor. I had a good time
with her. Whenever she had a drink, she would offer me
some too, as if I could drink in front of her. She did not
know that we the ‘Money People’ are forbidden to show
our activities to the human race! One day, her father
took me and a bunch of other coins to the store and
gave me away! I never saw that sweet little girl ever
again.
By then, I was already seven. I stayed with the
shopkeeper for most of the following years. He put me
in a coin drawer. I was never picked. There, I made more
friends: A dime, a nickel, and another penny, just like
me. We four spent lots of time together. It was until a
year that I had realized that the dime and the nickel
were actually my old buddies from the factory! We used
to prank each other, because it was so fun! We pranked
the other penny by pretending to put gross things in her
meal! She was super angry with us, because that was
her favorite kind of meal. We had fun, but it didn’t stay
for too long time. One by one, each of us moved on until
I was left alone again. A few months after their
departure, when I was thirteen, the shopkeeper gave
me to a poor woman and his little boy. The boy was
delighted to see me! He was certainly very hungry as he
ran to a bakery and get some bread in exchange for me.
Later that day, a truck to deliver bread arrived and the
shopkeeper gave me along with some other coins to the
driver. He drove the truck from Minnesota to Wyoming.
The driver used to care for me. Although not like the
little girl of that chemistry lab assistant used to do, this
driver would just pick up any coins on the floor and put
them back in the drawer. A few weeks passed, then I
was given to a family on vacation in Wyoming. A little
boy from this family put me in his pocket. A while later,
the boy stepped out of the car and after a little walk, I
could hear waterfalls. I heard his father mentioning
about Yellowstone National Park, and I knew we were
probably there. Later, the young boy took another coin
and me out, compared to us, and put the other coin in a
machine.
He pressed some buttons and when she came out from
the machine, she was kind of stretched and there was a
beautiful map of Yellowstone National Park on her body.
Oh, I was so jealous of her! After the vacation period,
the father drove us to their home in San Francisco,
California.
One day, the father brought in two more coins. You
know what! They were the same dime and nickel! I was
extremely delighted to see my first ever friends! We
spent three years at that house, and these three years
were memorable. We played, talked, laughed, and
giggled. Once the dime, nickel, one of my penny friends,
and I pranked another penny by first, putting water right
behind her, and then, scaring her so much that she
tumbled into the water! Even she admitted it was
hilarious! I really had so much fun! In our third year at
that house, we were given to a person selling toys in an
amusement park.
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