Life Change in a Second-hand Pocket

Jasper reached over and dragged the upside-down black bowler hat towards him. The edges of the hat were becoming a little frayed and tiny black threads poked out from the rim in various places. Scooping the money out of the hat, he quickly counted the bills and change and stuffed it in his pants pocket, the left one, the right one had a hole in it and he had worked too hard to lose his money that way. His reward after banging on a bongo drum for four hours, twelve dollars and fifteen cents. A kid about his age had thrown in a chocolate bar early on and Jasper had long since eaten it. Thinking about it made his stomach gurgle. As a small breeze blew Jasper hugged his arms around his torso trying to keep warm, covering the hole in the side of his brown sweater with one hand. As soon as the breeze had passed, he put the bowler hat on his head and scooped up the bongo drum it had been sitting on while he counted his money. Discovering the new looking wooden bongo during one of his dumpster dives had been one of his greatest finds. People were more likely to throw money in a hat if you were playing music then if you were standing with a sign that said, “Please give money for food.” Maybe they liked to feel like they were paying for something, such as a song, then just to give money away. 

Hurrying along the busy sidewalk Jasper paused in front of a store window long enough to rub a little dirt off of his cheek with the side of his gray fingerless glove. He took a deep breath and pushed the door open to Estelle’s Second Things First store. It was a store that sold gently used clothing. Jasper headed straight to the back left corner where the jackets were kept. He tried on several jackets. When he put on the light blue wool jacket, he was instantly sold. He could already feel a little warmer. The jacket rested well over his sweater but wasn’t too big. It was light blue, but not so light as to be a sky blue. It had two rows of side by side darker blue buttons, three buttons per row so it looked like three pairs of marching button soldiers down the front. The inside of the jacket had a blue lining that matched the buttons. Holding his breath a little he flipped over the dangling white tag hanging from the sleeve. Twenty-five dollars was scrawled in large neat blue pen. He looked down at his faded blue sneakers for a moment, then he squared up his shoulders and walked quickly to the counter with the jacket in hand. 

The robust woman behind the counter smiled at him as she picked up a pair of green-rimmed glasses dangling from a chain around her neck and studied the price tag with them.

“What an excellent choice in a jacket young man,” she practically cooed as she rubbed the woolen sleeve in between the red polished fingers of her left hand, “this will certainly keep you warm! That will be twenty-five dollars.” 

Jasper pulled out the twelve dollars that he had stashed in his pocket earlier. Reaching down he pulled off his left sneaker to reveal a five-dollar bill and three ones. He carefully set these on the counter with his twelve dollars. He reached down to put that shoe back on, hesitated and then reached for his right shoe only to be interrupted by the lady behind the counter.

“Oh my, I’m sorry young sir I have almost done you a disservice. This jacket was marked to go on sale- see that there?”, having his attention she pointed to a small ‘s’ that was in a light green marker in the corner of the price tag, “it stands for sale. I must have missed this one, it was supposed to be marked down to twenty dollars.” 

With that being said she scooped up the money on the counter and then asked if he wanted a bag or to wear it out of the store. Just like that Jasper found himself standing on the sidewalk wearing the finest coat he’d ever owned and he had enough money to get a meal. His stomach rumbled in agreement and the five-dollar bill in his right shoe begged to be spent on sustenance. 

As he laid down in his box later, he felt something lumpy wedged up against his chest. After some investigating he realized that the jacket had an inside pocket; inside this pocket was a green figurine. It was a pale green color and had some thin white stripes on the arms and legs. Jasper smiled a little as he discovered he could bend the arms and legs a bit. He set the figure on top of his bongo drum near his head and lay back down. As Jasper’s breath became more slow and deep, the little green figure slipped slowly down from the bongo drum and walked toward his head. Turning its’ head to the right and then to the left, the little figure crept closer one step at a time. Lunging for Jasper’s throat it squiggled inside the coat and found a nice warm spot. The next morning Jasper popped open two milk chocolate eyes and saw that the figure was no longer on the bongo. He looked around the area and still didn’t see it. As he stood he felt something weird in between his coat and his chest. Slowly opening his coat he saw the figure hanging with one hand grasping the top part of the inner pocket.

“That’s odd, how did you get there little buddy?”, Jasper asked scratching in between the curls on the top of his head. He plucked it off the coat and held it up to inspect it. One pale green arm with a white stripe lifted its’ arm and did a slow wave. Jasper blinked in rapid succession, yelled and dropped the figure.

“AHHHH,” yelled the little green man.

“What?!?!?,” yelled Jasper.

The six-inch tall figure thunked lightly onto the ground. As Jasper stared wide-eyed at the figure it slowly sat up and shook its’ head. The two stared at each other for a moment. Jasper scratched at the back of his neck with one hand and raised the other in a half-wave, “umm…hi?”

“Heeellllooo,” it replied in a small voice. 

“Oh good, you speak English,” replied Jasper smiling a little.

“I’m leaarnnning youurr speeach,” said the being as it rose to a standing position and stretched its’ legs.

“Am I dreaming….or crazy? You know I’ve been on my own a long time, maybe I’m seeing things like Uncle Eddie used to”, Jasper leaned forward as he was talking and lowered one finger toward the figure, slowly moving it until it was right next to the small figure.

One small green hand reached out and touched the tip of Jasper’s finger, “You’rre nnnot, off, caann you hellpp mme?”.

“I think so, depends on what you need, I’m only ten so there is a lot I can’t do. I can’t drive you anywhere. Say… what’s your name anyway?”

“Thwaspen, iss my name. I nneed my shhipp.” Thwaspen started to clamber on Jasper’s finger, to his wrist and sat down with one hand on Jaspers thumb.

“You have a ship? Like a spaceship?”, Jasper asked.

Thwaspen nodded and started swinging the dangling green feet.

“My name is Jasper by the way. Where is your spaceship?”, Jasper slowly stood as he talked and collected a few odds and ends like string, and put them in his pockets.

Thwaspen stretched out an arm and moved it from left to right as it spoke dramatically, “The Museum of Science, Science, Science”, it sounded like an audio clip from an ad.

Jasper nodded and headed that direction. They talked on the way. Thwaspen was sitting on Jasper’s shoulder near his ear. Any passers-by just saw a small boy and a toy and thought nothing of it or the conversation the boy seemed to be having with himself. Thwaspens ability to speak vastly improved over the twelve-minute walk it took to get to the museum of science. Skipping right past the front entrance, Jasper headed around to the side and waited behind a trash dumpster. Like clockwork the trash from the morning astrology show was brought out and just before the door closed behind the attendant Jasper slide a small piece of wood in between the door and the door frame so it didn’t quite close. After counting to fifteen, he slowly opened the door and peeked inside. The auditorium was dark except for a few lights that allowed people to walk around without running into things. Sliding along the outer wall of the auditorium Jasper was soon through the auditorium door and mingling with the museum of science crowd. Taking direction from Thwaspen Jasper soon found himself in the “History of Toy Technology” section staring at a red spaceship big enough for Thwaspen, sitting behind museum glass. Jasper walked along the museum pathways thinking. He was near a water fountain when he heard someone call out, “have a good afternoon director”, and inspiration struck. The director was walking out of an office very close to the water fountain. He slid over and then stopped and bent down pretending to tie his shoe while placing his trusty wood piece in front of the door before it closed all the way. He continued walking on. A little while later he meandered back down that hallway, admiring “science art” on the walls. When hardly anyone was in the hall and none of them were paying attention, he walked into the directors’ office and shut the door. First he scoured the office looking for keys, which he found in a box in the bottom drawer of her desk. The small gray office had a small bathroom off to the side, a steel legged desk and a chair with wheels nestled behind it. A fake potted plant against the wall and a small coat closet made up the rest of the office. Jasper settled into the closet and waited. 

Hours later Jasper woke up with a stiff neck and an animated Thwaspen tugging on his ear. Hearing nothing, Jasper ventured out of the closet and eventually out of the office. He tiptoed to the toy display that held the spaceship. With trembling fingers, he tried key after key. He heard the soft steady footsteps of the night guard sounding closer. 

Click. Jasper almost sighed out loud in relief. The glass lid slid to the side under the urging of Jasper’s fingers. He reached in and grabbed the spaceship by the wing and pulled it out of the display case. Just as he was sliding the glass back into place he felt the glare of a flashlight beam followed by, “stop right there kid.”

Turning slowly his eyes took in the tall lean security guard. Staring at Jasper sternly he asked,”what are you nine? Ten? Is this some kind of dare? You don’t want to start this kind of trouble kid.”

Jasper squeaked a little as he spoke,”No sir, it’s not a dare or anything like that. I’m helping a friend.”

“Is there someone else in here with you?,” the guard’s eyes started scanning the area while he talked.

“Just my friend Thwaspen.”

“Thwaspen? That’s an interesting name. Canadian?,” the guard focused his light beam on Jasper once again, “you need to tell your friend to come out so there are no misunderstandings here. Right now we are doing just fine. We want to keep doing fine, right?”

Jasper nodded,”If my friend comes out, promise you won’t hurt him?”

“I promise I won’t hurt him IF he is calm and keeps his hands where I can see them, ok?”.

Thwaspen came out from where he’d been hiding in Jasper’s coat. Holding his hands up in the air he seemed to speak with dignity, “Pleasure to meet you, sir.”

The guard squinted at Thwaspen and then turned dark brown eyes from the green figure to Jasper and back again, “Is this some kind of joke?”

“No sir”, Jasper replied, “Thwaspen was separated from his spaceship and I was just helping him out.”. Jasper wiggled the spaceship a little for effect.

“How do I know this isn’t some sort of advanced toy?,” the guard asked.

“Please sir, Thwaspen just wants to reunite with his people.”

Thwaspen took this opportunity to nod and ask, “May I lower my hands now? May I go to my craft now?”

The guard hesitated, “I’ll tell you what, you climb into that toy spaceship and fly around this room and you can have it.”

Thwaspen needed no further urging. His little green feet barely touched Jasper as he ran down his arm and climbed into the spaceship. Soon Jasper could feel it vibrating in his hand, and he saw Thwaspen waving from the cockpit. Jasper let go of the wing that he had pinched between his thumb and forefinger The bright red spaceship took off and flew around the room in a figure-eight followed by a double-barrel turn that resulted in Thwaspen and the guard being at eye level with each other. Flying over to Jasper the cockpit opened and Thwaspen leaned out holding a silver object that looked half his size. Jasper gripped the object as he and the guard stared at the spaceship zooming through the museum. Thwaspen soon appeared back in front of the guard.

Popping open the cockpit Thwaspen shouted out, “Hey buddy, can you help an alien out? Could you open the door?”

The guard nodded and ran to his security station with Jasper hot on his heels. Not too long after, the guard and Jasper watched the spaceship soar off into the night sky. They both stared into the dark blue abyss filled with twinkly lights for some time. The guard nudged Jasper’s shoulder, “say, what did he give you?”

Jasper relaxed his grip, unfurling one caramel finger after another until the object was visible. A key was nestled in his hand. 

“That looks like a bus station locker key. Can I go with you to check it out? After all, it was an alien that handed it to you.”

 Jasper looked at him from head to toe, “this is my key and whatever is in there is mine.”.

“Of course…I’m sorry, what is your name? I’m Jonas”, Jonas reached out his hand to shake Jaspers. The broad dark hand practically engulfed Jasper’s. The guard had Jasper wait in the guard’s locker room until his shift ended. Jonas set Jasper up with warm chicken soup, crackers, and a small portable t.v. to pass the time. 

The sun breaking over the horizon meet Jasper and Jonas walking to the nearest bus station. The locker was easily found and in it, inside of a velvet-lined box was a diamond. A fairly large diamond. During the course of time determining that the diamond was real and legal, Jonas and Jasper became friends. Jonas had told Jasper that he had always wanted to help people and he felt he did that a little, as a security guard but it wasn’t as fulfilling a job as he thought it would be. When he found out Jasper was homeless he had him stay at his apartment “just while things were getting sorted”. The time together and the newfound fortune brought the two of them around to the idea of running a home for homeless youths. A place where they could be safe and get an education. No questions were asked as long as you followed the rules and did your chores. The J&J manor still stands, one hundred years later, providing hope and encouragement to all who enter.