A Story, "Do You Have Any Spare Change?"

It was a beautiful summer evening, he was surrounded by many of his friends and he was not expecting what was about to happen.  The young man stood there a little bit in shock and immediately he flash-backed to earlier in the day.

"Are you serious you've got to be kidding me", young man thought. It had been a long hot summer afternoon, the young man was standing in the middle of a laundromat pondering his next move. After working all night he woke up early so that he could go and complete his laundry.  Young bachelor wanted to make sure that he had clothes for the coming week. The laundromat closest to his apartment was clean enough, but unfortunately though with it being summer it was very hot inside. He didn't live in the greatest of neighborhoods so leaving and coming back when he expected his wash to be done was not an ideal option. He was so tired that when he left he forgot to grab something to read. Watching the dryers spin round and round he gazed at magazines that were five years old, he scoffed can try to find an article that was somewhat relevant to him. 

The day was basically annoying. A hot summer day stuck inside a hot laundromat waiting to do laundry on his day off was not how he wanted to spend his time. It seemed like days but the young man actually had only been there a couple of hours. 

"Finally!,  he said out loud he was disgusted but happy at the same time that his final two washing machines had finished cycle. Grabbing his basket he approached the two machines to begin hauling the wet clothes out of each washer. Disgruntled he realize he was going to have to make two trips so he took the basket of clothes over to one of the dryers and unloaded the clothes. Whole task was taking far too long for his patience. Retrieving the remainder of his clothes out of the final washer he went over to yet another dryer and filled it is well. Thrusting his hand down into his pocket he grabbed the remaining quarters that he had. The laundromat was empty and he felt like a fool being inside such a hot place on a hot day when it was so beautiful outside. As he pushed quarters into the first dryer he could hear the sound of the quarters hitting the bottom of the inside of the machine. The sound echoed around the room almost as if it was like a clock ticking away the seconds, seconds that he felt he was wasting. Approaching the second machine and he looked down to his hand and was in utter shock.



"Come on you can't be serious!",  he yelled out loud, it seemed as though he did not have enough change for his last dryer. Fumbling with his pockets he finally found his wallet pulled it out. Opening it only provided more disgust. The smallest bill had in his wallet was a $10 bill. His head rocked back and stared at the ceiling,  like a zombie he walked over to the change machine. Sure enough the change machine accepted $10 bills and it was all too ready and all too happy it seemed to take his $10 bill. 


"You got to be kidding me!", he said out loud, "You mean I got a break a $10 bill just to get two measly quarters?" He stared at the change machine and it seem to just sit there with it's single orange light just mocking him. Muttering indiscernible to words to himself he pulled out his $10 bill and fed it into the machine. 

"Of course! Of course!", he exclaimed, the machine decided to taunt him further by spitting the bill back out of him two or three times. Finally the change machine accepted his $10 bill and the young man threw his hands up into the air as if you had made some great accomplishment. Shortly after he started his final load in the last dryer, his first dryer was finished and he began folding clothes. One by one the dryers came to a slow halt and he was there at the ready to open them up and fold all those clothes while they were still nice and warm. Sweat began to rundown his brow, and a funk began to permeated his body. With his clothes folded, he took each the basket out to his car. He packed up and drove back home. Each step he took though was a reminder to the annoyance of having to break that $10 bill. With each step he could feel the heavy weight of $9.50 in quarters swinging back-and-forth in his baggy jeans. 

Young man had a lot to do in a short period of time. He was supposed to go out with his friends that night and got wrapped up in the comings and going during of the rest of his day. His mind calmed as he moved on to more pleasurable tasks, and soon he forgot about the hot sweaty laundromat. He grabbed the mail, paid his bills, cooked something for dinner and sat down to listen to the radio for a bit. Realizing what time it was he got up and took a shower so that he would look and smell fresh for an evening out on the town. Once he was all dressed and ready to go the young man headed out of his apartment went over to his friend's house. 

After knocking on the door, in a cute but stupid way, his friend came and opened the door. A smile was on the young man's face and he was ready for a night of fun.

"How's it going man?", asked his friend.
"Not too bad",  replied the young man.
 "You ready to have some fun tonight?",  his friend asked.
 "Of course I'm always ready are you?", the young man said in a coy way. 
"Sure", replied his friend and they were off. 

The two were headed downtown for a night of fun.  The nice thing about their destination was that it was close to home so they could walk there. This was a weekly adventure for these two. They would head downtown to a strip of bars and they would hop from one establishment to another to see all of the night had to offer. Most the time they would wander from bar to bar until they found a decent sounding band, and then there they would hang out for the rest of the night trading their stories of the week between sets. And it was off to a pretty good start at the second bar they walked into they ran into some mutual friends who decided to tagalong with them as well. There wasn't really anything special about this evening everyone was just having a good time. It'd been a long work week so it was nice to break free from the drudgery of work and ride the easy side of life. 

After the atmosphere had got bit stale at the bar that they were in, the four guys decided to head further down the strip and check out another bar.  As they turned to cross the street, they came face-to-face with an old man. The old man clearly looked like he was down on his luck, to be honest, he looked straight up homeless. Even though it was night and there was barely any light you could tell that he was quite disheveled, and that he probably had washed himself in quite a few days. Thankfully there was a cool summer breeze in the air which kept any of the man's body odor from lingering too long. All four of the young men paused and were speechless. They really didn't have anything to say. Before anyone could even blurt out an, "excuse me", the old man's eyes widened and he began to speak.

"Excuse me", the old man said, "Would you by any chance have any spare change?" 

The young man looked at his three friends and he could tell that none of them were interested in helping the old man. The first raised his hands, the second shook his head "no", the third tapped the outside of his pockets and put his hands up as if to say he had nothing. For some reason this old man struck him in an odd way. There he was, it was a beautiful summer evening he was surrounded by his friends. He felt happy, safe and secure. He was out on the town having fun and here in front of him was an old man all alone probably cold, hungry and thirsty. The old man looked as if he was nothing, a stiff wind could've probably blown him over. On some level the old man terrified him, could he ever end up that way? How would he survive if he had no home or job, depending merely on the kindness of others to take care of himself. For some reason in that brief moment staring in that old man's eyes he was shook to the core. 


"Spare change?",  he thought, "Spare change? I usually don't even carry money elsewise I'd spend it to quickly. If I had any spare change I would definitely give it to this guy he surely looks like he needs it!", the young man thought.

And then for some reason he grab the outside of his right pocket, looked down and began to smile. Slowly he slid his right hand into his right jeans pocket and there was the wad of $9.50 in quarters. There were the quarters that had been swinging around in his pants all day. There was the wad of change that he transferred from one pair of pants to the other before he went out that night because it was just so habitual for him to do. Young man hardly ever carried money and he rarely carried this much change. 

For some reason there was a whisper in the back of his mind saying, "Just do it."

In less than a second the young man fished around his pocket managed to grab all the change and fisted it into his hand. 

He looked deep into the homeless man's eyes, nodded and said, "Sure."

The homeless man's hands were cupped and on the ready. Young man slowly relaxed his grip around all the quarters to slowly pool them into the homeless man's hands making sure that he didn't drop a single one. Everything seemed to happen in slow-motion. It was as if it took 10 minutes for all those quarters to drop in to the homeless man's hands. With each clink of each coin the old man's eyes got wider and wider. 

After the old man had all the quarters young man merely nodded his head and said, "You have a good evening sir",  and the four friends proceeded to walk onto their destination. 

Young man didn't look at his friends to see what they thought, or to see if they were shocked. He just looked at the ground as he walked and was thankful for who he was and what he had.  Maybe the old man would use the money to go buy booze but hopefully he go buy a warm meal. He had done his part, he loved his neighbor as he would have loved himself. Deep down he felt a little ashamed, ashamed that he was inconvenienced by hot laundromat where he had the money to wash and dry his clothes, so he could walk around in clean clothes full of dignity. Young man wondered if he shouldn't of done more for the homeless man. He never saw him again though, not that night and not any other night. All in all the young man felt thankful.  Later he walked home having done a good deed and learned a valuable lesson.

Am 8:4-6, 9-12

Hear this, you who trample upon the needy
and destroy the poor of the land!
“When will the new moon be over,” you ask,
“that we may sell our grain,
and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat?”
We will diminish the containers for measuring,
add to the weights,
and fix our scales for cheating!
We will buy the lowly man for silver,
and the poor man for a pair of sandals;
even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!”

On that day, says the Lord GOD,
I will make the sun set at midday
and cover the earth with darkness in broad daylight.
I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentations.
I will cover the loins of all with sackcloth
and make every head bald.
I will make them mourn as for an only son,
and bring their day to a bitter end.

Yes, days are coming, says the Lord GOD,
when I will send famine upon the land:
Not a famine of bread, or thirst for water,
but for hearing the word of the LORD.
Then shall they wander from sea to sea
and rove from the north to the east
In search of the word of the LORD,
but they shall not find it.