By Wynne Dinger

“Hey a penny!” I heard a voice say. “Is it on heads?” Said another smaller voice. “It is! That means today’s lucky!” I then found myself in a dark enclosed space for some time. I was then in a noisy, loud room. Still in the pocket. Then the girl was pinching me and said, “Hey Rosemary. Look what I found outside!” I then saw a girl with ginger hair and brown eyes. I supposed this was Rosemary. “Wow Wynne, that's good luck!” I saw this Wynne. She looked nine and had brown hair. “Hey did you hear that the other day this guy named Kobe Bryant and his daughter died in a helicopter crash?” “No. I feel sorry for him.” I do too.

 A couple hours later I was in a car and the girl was pinching me and said, “Hey Dad. Look at what i found outside this morning!” I saw a man with brown hair driving the car. “Woah. Cool.” “Can we go to sonic?” Said the small girl from this morning. “No. We went yesterday.”

 One or two months later the small girl took me somewhere. I don’t know where “I’ll give you a penny and two quarters for the squishy sheep.” “I’ll take the two quarters but keep the penny. I heard there’s a shortage or something.” “Class I have an announcement. Because of the coronavirus we will do something called virtual school.”

Have you ever been a penny? “Well… I am a penny, so I’ll tell ya, NOT fun!”  One time I got locked in this weird looking drawer. I don’t know where, but it looked busy and people were scanning items like toilet paper. Soon, they said “Toilet paper shortage everyone! Toilet paper shortage!”  I say “ Wow, why?”  It was confusing. “ I hope you're not a coin like me.”  I get jiggled around a lot in people’s pockets, and sometimes I even get dropped on the ground. It’s SO weird! It makes me cry in front of people.

I once got trapped in this dark place. It had no windows and no people. “It was scary, very scary! I need to get out of here! It’s SO scary! I hope they bring me somewhere else! Noooooo, just kidding, I definitely hope NOT!” They just bring me from place to place like nothings happening!  “I’m like, what the heck!”

Then, they bring me to this place with yucky germs there. It was outside. There were people putting things in people’s noses! “Holy moly!” I hope Covid ends soon because this nonsense stuff is awful. Have you been in a nonsense situation before?

“Tails!” I heard a young boy say as I layed on some sort of countertop, sore from all my spinning. I stared at the countertop wondering what I was doing here. Apparently all the screaming was a good sign because one boy yelled “Yes!” yet the other just threw me. As I hit the ground with a cling I couldn’t help to think to myself why would they do such a thing. 

Suddenly boom boom I was snatched from the floor and tossed into a sticky, dirty, and dark place. Others like me perched there. One after one, they disappeared, but I stayed in that dark, scary place. Then after what seemed like a lifetime I got taken out and tossed into something they called salt and vinegar. It stank really bad but they said I was just getting cleaned. After that, I got pulled out, dried off, and zipped in a little bag. 

It reminded me of the time when I was just a little penny and I was just born. My mom Martha got broken and 99 other little pennies spilled out. Then we all got zipped up and packed up for about a year until we had matured a little. Now that's enough about the past now let's get back to the present. I shook around in a bag until I finally saw sunlight. Then a man they called Mr. John said “Why that's a mighty lot of toilet paper you've got there.” “Well I got the last of it here.” said Mrs. Walker. “That will be six o one.” said Mr. John. Then I was pulled out of the bag and handed to the man who placed me in a dark, dark drawer.

 into another penny and made back into a penny into a gumball machine

and put into a cash register then a drawer  and i could not hear anyone or anything. I see a guy talking to someone about selling the place and putting it somewhere else and making it a company.

Today was AWFUL.  Humans kept complaining about something called… Covid-19. What are these things covering people’s mouths? I see these things in many different colors but mostly blue and white. The sun was shining bright on my pretty copper body today. Then I heard little footsteps, they couldn't be from humans because they sounded so LIGHT. A couple minutes later two ants started to come up to me!! Then one of the ants walked away.  What happened? Did they get in an argument? Not so long later even MORE ants started coming towards me! The ants started to lift me up.  Around  five minutes later I saw this big red hill of dust. They put me inside the building, I saw a BIG ant bigger than the others. They seemed to be feeding the big ant food. Hmm I think I have heard about these ants in someone’s conversation.. Oh! A queen ant! Ants were walking all around me; they seemed to be rushing. Wait a minute! Is it almost winter?! A big wind came in knocking some ants down but they still managed to get outside and get some supplies. They put a little bit of dust in front of the entrances and holes. TWO DAYS LATER oh boy there is snow everywhere! The ants started to lift me up then they put me in a little cozy room, well I guess this is my life now.

“Hi im Alana and Im a penny I was departed from my brothers so I don't really know them but anyways i am getting ready for the worst its new years day and its 2020” I hear some muffling sounds but thats was it until I was picked up bye a boy he sang a song that indicated that he was about to get some candy with me so i didn't do any this but when we got to the store hear a mettle looking box sad “this is fox carolina news coming to you with a sad discovery 41 year old pro NBA star Kobey Bryent and his 13 year old daughter Gianna Bryent have both died in a helicopter crash along with others we send well wishes to all the families and rest in peace this was fox carolina news signing out” after that I hear a lot of crying and some people start to whisper.but when i heard "that will be a 1.99 if you could please use exact change because its a coin shortage right now" I was flabbergasted but i kept my cool for the sake of my back side I  was put into the mans hand and I  was put in his pocket  where I spent 72 hours then suddenly I got put into a machine that side 1.09 cents for 2 gumballs and a bracelet so then that's where I am right

plink I'm in a bucket for donations to help stop covid-19. but wait wait this is too far ahead! let's rewind a couple of months. “look a shiny penny must be my lucky day.” says a boy picking me up, his mother says in an angry voice “put that down it must be filthy who knows how many hands have touched it!”  “ok” the boy says pertaining to put me down but sneakily puts me in his pocket! should I mention my name? I think I should i'm Abe, Abe the penny. anyway where was I oh ya so i'm in a little boy's pocket. next thing i know i'm in a change jar i'm in there for a couple of weeks I meet some friends. then suddenly I feel shaking underneath me! the boy cried out “no I want to get a piece of candy!” his mother says “no we need to trade it in for dollars at the bank!” I hear a muffled voice say “thank you so much you know we are in a change shortage your donation will be appreciated” i forgot the rest (yes pennys have memories ) but somehow I ended up in a yelling womens purse 

YOU ARE GOING TO FORCE ME TO WEAR A MASK! she says in an angry voice CONGRATULATIONS YOU LOST A CUSTOMER! l fell on the floor in the outrage and the stock boy picked me up and put me in the bucket! well that's my story I hope for a better year next year goodbye!

Hi there, my name is Pendy, and today was the BEST day of my life! Want to know why? I got to meet my family! But it wasn't exactly how I imagined it to turn out. I will tell you the story. One calm morning Billy was feeling a big urge for candy but he didn't just give 1 of my family members, HE GAVE THEM ALL, for the past few months after that I was very lonely and sad without them here. But one morning when I was by myself he woke up, picked me up and shoved me in his pocket. I didn’t know what was going on so I didn’t think much of it. But then I heard a car. I thought he was bringing me to drop his sister off at school but he took me to the candy store! He walked in and gave me to a man at the cash register for a delicious chocolate bar. My mouth was watering. I could smell the chocolate and I was very jealous but the man tucked me in the cash register where I found myself with other coins who looked like me, I asked who are they were but then they started laughing. I was very confused but then I remembered they are my family! We had a good time but it didn’t last for long, a short time after someone BURST in the store yelling. We did not know what was happening so we just ignored it but then we heard loud sirens and a man started yelling again we were all very confused what had just happened. But it had been a long day and closing time so when the lights turned off we fell asleep.

Here’s your cash Mrs. Cassidy.   Have a wonderful new year! Only one penny?  I don’t care about one penny.  You know what, I’ll just give this to someone. You’re probably wondering who that poor poor penny is. That’s me, Parker Penny. My life started so long ago, about a day ago.  I’m still as shiny as untouched copper and like a chunk of bronze.  I was in the same room for what felt like decades but just maybe milliseconds just until March 28, 2020 someone with gloves on took me outside and ran like the flash. We arrived at this place that I’ve never seen before, obviously I’ve never seen it.  “Where’s the penny machine?”  I fell out their glove and rolled to this weird machine. “Hey look a penny.” Then suddenly I was in the air and into the machine and it sure was creepy. All of a sudden I was spinning and I felt like I was stretching. Is this the penny machine? What does the penny machine do? Then I flung out and felt like head and tail to a giant sailboat. I had changed to something new...