As I lay on the sidewalk,being passed by, stepped on, and picked at by birds, I wonder why I am even alive. Most of us pennies aren’t even used as spare change. We get put into take-a-penny give-a-penny trays, just waiting for someone to take us so we can start on our new journey. So besides the old grandmas that save us in coin-toilers, we really won’t ever be used. I just want the day to come when people will for once will spend us. We pennies are jealous of the paper bills, being spent all the time, getting to go places all over the country, they have it so good. They don’t know what it is like to be dropped and not even cared about. I want to be more than a collecting item for grandmas, I want to be important.
Wait! Where are my manners? I am Blake, and I am a penny. I live in the busy streets of Boston. Every day I sit on the curb of a burger joint, waiting for someone kind enough to come pick me up. It isn’t fair though. I am facing tails up. Nobody wants a penny tails up. Peoples superstitions make it seem like you are only important if you are heads up. I think all pennies should be treated the same, for we are all made the same way, we all cost one cent, and we are all the same size and shape. But I guess people don’t want us for our dark bronze color. Quarters think they are the best. With their shiny silver color, and their large size, they are the best of the best. They bring joy to the Boston kids, being put into arcade machines to let them play.
As for the paper bills, they are the real rulers of american currency. They get treated so well, with no folds or tears in them. They get to go on rides in the big armoured trucks. They get put on the truck by the thousands, cheering as they go. But the thing is, we pennies have no idea where the go after that. Some of the coins believe that where they go is a basic hell. And if that’s true, then I guess I am kind of glad that I am penny. I would rather be nothing sitting here than taking a gamble and going to a place that may or may not be my dreams.
But I have met some nice people here in Boston. They are the family I never had. I meet them on a rainy monday night. I remember the precious little girl that took me everywhere. I thought I would be with her for my entire life. But then on that gloomy night, she dropped me, and never even stopped to get me. A group of nickels saw me, but at first they wanted nothing to do with me. Every night I sat there, crying myself asleep, then having nightmares that I would be alone forever. But on the fifth night, I was woken by the voices of coins near me, but didn’t pay much attention, so I went back to sleep. When I woke up the next morning, I didn’t recognize where I was. I heard voices, and when I looked over I saw the nickles. I heard rain but I didn’t feel it. I figured out that the nickels must have gotten me out of the rain. Now I was in their old boot they called a home.
The nickels started chatting with me. I was right about them taking me into their home. They told me about how they took me in, that they couldn’t just let me sit out in the rain alone. They told me that the boot we were in was a homeless man’s boot. They said every so often a new friend would be tossed into the home,but usually only pennies, nickels, and sometimes dimes. However there was this one quarter named Bryan that lived in the boot. I talked with him and he told me about how he was tossed into here by an Army veteran by the name of Frank Polley. We had similar backgrounds. We both had someone who cared for us, and we both thought we would be with them forever. But we had the same fate. And now here we are, sitting in a boot, not being able to do much but chat with the other coins. Over time Bryan and I became pretty close. We would play games like washers and corn hole with little crumbs. He won most of the time for he was a lot more athletic than me.

At about the same time every night he would sneek out, going somewhere. No one really paid any attention to him though. But one day I decided to follow him. I watched him as he hopped out of the boot and got into his 1975 Coke can and drove around the corner out of my sight. One day as he was leaving, he told me to come with him. I had no idea where I could be going. He said that we were going on a journey across Boston to find a broken ATM. He said that once we found one, we would jump into it and go into the coin trays. I asked why he wanted to do such a thing. He said this is the one way we could for sure get out of this terrible place, and how we would finally be able to be with people of our kind. The trip took days to complete, I started wondering if there was even an ATM to be found. I woke up from my nap and i look out the front windshield, and there it was. We both got out of his car and started the climb to the top. The climb took hours and drained us of all our energy. Soon enough we made it to the top and stared down into the black pit where the silver tray had been removed. He looked at me and teared up. He said the words to me, “I will find you one day”. We counted the three and then took the leap of faith. When I smacked the ground, I blacked out and felt like I lost control and feeling over my body.

When I awoke i had no idea where I was. I felt like I was moving on some kind of conveyer belt. I looked around my and saw tons of different coins. But when I looked to my right, there Bryan was. We both eventually realized that we were being moved on a conveyer line and was being sorted into our own bins. While conversating with Bryan, this huge human swept down and picked him up. He was thrown onto a tray violently. There I saw his lifeless body laying there. And all I could do was sit back and slowly be taken away from my best friend. I was eventually put onto a money truck, going place to place across the United States. I didn’t know what my life was coming to while riding the truck. All I did was sit in a bucket wondering where my best friend was. At this one stop in Shrevport Louisianna, I was taken off the truck and was being carried into a casino. The officer carrying me sneezed and I was knocked out of the bucket and onto the casino floor. I was dazed and couldn’t think straight. After my vision cleared, I noticed this silver object next to me. I thought I was dreaming when the silver object leaned over me and said,”I never forgot.”