Thaddeus the Lucky Penny

All pennies were lucky, so why couldn’t Thaddeus be? All he needed was for somebody to find him and pick him up. Then he could be the luckiest penny in the world.

After waiting day in and day out, a pair of shoes came to a sudden stop in front of Thaddeus. They belonged to a gallant man named Martin McTickles.

“My, a penny!” exclaimed Martin McTickles with glee. “It’s my lucky day!”

Martin McTickles placed Thaddeus in his breast pocket and continued on his way to work. Thaddeus was elated. His day had finally come to bring someone a world of fortune.

When Martin McTickles arrived at work, he sat at his desk, ready for a lousy day. He thought that he may as well scratch off that lottery ticket he had bought moments earlier. Using his new lucky penny, he scratched away at the ticket and discovered that—he had won a billion dollars!

Martin McTickles could hardly contain his astonishment when he received a phone call. It was Officer Horpiloink, a policeman he had been in contact with for a long time. Officer Horpiloink had some news. After a decade of searching, Martin McTickles’ parents who had been lost at sea were finally found.

Martin McTickles wanted to cry but before he could, the girl of his dreams that had moved away to Paris long ago came racing to his desk. She said she had made a mistake and that yes, she would marry him.

Martin McTickles was teeming with emotion and was not prepared at all to read the email he just received from his hometown. They decided to rename the town McTickles in honor of the underappreciated greatness Martin had brought to its people so long ago.

Martin McTickles went to bed that night that happiest man in the world. Thaddeus slept in his breast pocket, the luckiest penny in the world.

Thaddeus woke up. He was not in a breast pocket. He was at the bottom of a dark, cold well. Thaddeus had been dreaming. He would never be found.