$1.25 Lesson

It was Sunday…and that meant only one thing. Today was the day for after church coffee at the Cozy Palace Cafe. The Cozy Palace had been in business for as long as anyone could remember. The chicken fried steak was tough and the French fries were soggy, but they had the best coffee in town. Cap and Ely strolled into the cafe like they owned the place. Pretty much did as regular customers. They were the ring leaders of the coffee crowd on Sunday. Something to be proud of for sure.
After filling his worn plastic coffee mug, that he kept in his truck somewhere between the backseat and the floorboard, Cap sat down at the table full of men. This was where lots of business took place. Hay was traded or bought or sold, along with cattle and just about anything else they could think of. Next week the same stuff would change hands again, and maybe right back to the fella who traded it first. Call it trader’s remorse if you will. Cap was ready to start in on someone. He barely sipped his scalding coffee.
“Glen, you got that garage cleaned out for Dell yet?” he asked, “You been talking about it for 2 weeks.”
“Nope. Figure if I clean it out she’ll think of something else. I’ll let her focus on this a while longer.” Replied Glen.
“I wish you would go ahead and do it. Might make it rain. And we need it.” Offered Cap with a smile.
“I’ll get to it soon enough. Martha has your yard looking good, though I’m sure no thanks to you.”
“We had an agreement when we got married that the yard was her job. I don’t want to infringe on her territory.” Said Cap.
“No chance of that.” Glenn said.
This went on for an hour or so until everyone was either tired of drinking coffee or about half mad at each other…whichever came first. As everyone walked out of the cafe they stopped on the front porch for a minute to say their goodbyes. Cap noticed the newspaper machine and decided to take one home so Martha could read it…and look at the coupons to see if anything good was in there. He fished in his pocket for $1.25 in quarters but came up one short. A couple others reached in their pocket when Glen got a sly look on his face. Out of his pocket came a shiny new quarter and he handed it to Cap.
“Here you go Cap. I’ve got one right here.” Said Glen, now being a little too eager and moving closer to Cap.
“Thanks, I owe you.”
Cap inserted his money, pulled the door down and bent over to get his paper. Glen swooped in for the kill. In one swift motion, or as swift a motion as he was able, Glen took his fingers and from the back flipped Cap’s good, “Sunday”, felt cowboy hat into the paper machine and kicked the door closed forever imprisoning Cap’s hat! Cap stood there in disbelief and the other men almost couldn’t stand from laughing so hard. They were all leaning on the building to keep from falling! There Cap stood, no more quarters, his friends laughing at him, with his hat locked up in a paper machine. That was the biggest insult.
“Cap, maybe you shouldn’t aggravate Glen so much from here on out.” Ely said.
“Why would I care about Glen?” growled Cap.
“You owe him a Quarter!.”