“One Gooey Gumdrop, please,” Tommy Tomorrow said to Mr. Ed Grumble, who was standing behind the counter at the Gumdrop Shop, the penny candy store he owned.

“You know they come in a box,” Mr. Grumble replied frustrated as he placed both hands on the counter and stared into Tommy’s eyes. “Now, kid, you are testing my patience.”

“I didn’t know there was a test to measure patience,” Tommy said. “Is it like the Richter Scale that measures earthquakes?”

“Now you are opening up another can of worms!” Mr. Grumble said louder as his face turned red.

“Gummy worms!” Tommy said excitedly. Mr. Grumble had just reminded him of another great idea.

“I want some of those, too!” Bobby Bishop said quickly. He was standing next to Tommy.

Mr. Grumble shook his head as he looked up at the ceiling and folded his arms before himself. He should have known better than to expect anything different from these two. They were always playing games with him.

“Can’t I get one free sample Gooey Gumdrop like at the deli?” Tommy said, trying another angle.

“I don’t give out free samples,” Mr. Grumble replied firmly. “I’m running a business here, not a charity.”

“Well, I have one penny to pay for one,” Tommy said.

“Come back when you have 99 more pennies!” Mr. Grumble said, raising his voice as his face turned that familiar shade of red again. “These come in a box and are not sold by the piece.”

“Okay, Mr. Grumble. I see what you’re saying. We’ll be back after we save up more pennies.” Tommy backed away from the counter. “We only have one penny right now and I thought this was a penny candy store, but I guess not everything is a penny here.”

“For one penny you can have one chocolate sprinkle, one colored sprinkle, or one piece of the loose candy in any of these three candy jars on this shelf.” Mr. Grumble pointed to three loose candy jars in the corner of the bottom shelf behind him. Next to the register there were two small plastic containers with lids, one with chocolate sprinkles and and one with colored sprinkles.

“Can you bring the penny candy jars here so I can examine them closer?” Tommy asked.

“No,” Mr. Grumble said. “That kind of service is not included in the price. Let me break it to you this way: hard candy, chewy candy, and chocolate candy. Which one do you want, kid. And you can only get one for one penny.”

Tommy and Bobby stood up on their tippy toes to try to peek at the glass candy jars on the bottom back corner shelf.

“Do you have a penny?” Tommy asked Bobby.

“No, at least I don’t think so,” Bobby said as he checked his pockets.

Tommy started checking his pockets, too. Tommy had one penny in the deep corner of his pants pocket. He checked his back pockets, too, as Bobby started doing the same.

“There has to be another penny around here somewhere,” Tommy said out loud.

“Well, don’t look in here,” Mr. Grumble said. “Any penny you find on the floor here is mine.”

“We’ll be right back,” Tommy said. “Come on, Bobby, let’s go outside.”

Tommy and Bobby went outside and started scoping for one more measly penny. There had to be another one somewhere nearby. They were at the street corner where the Gumdrop Shop was and they started looking outside of the building, along the sidewalk and the street curb. There was no penny anywhere.

The wind started picking up. Bobby and Tommy were busy at work, looking around. There was a bus stop close to Mr. Grumble’s shop. There was a baseball field a couple blocks away. Tommy was starting to feel desperate and wondered how far he wanted to take this search. He saw the grass along the street curb waving back hard in response to the wind, but as he looked closer, there in the grass, there was no penny. There was a dollar. Without hesitation, Tommy quickly grabbed it and put it in his pocket.

“Bobby!” Tommy said. “You won’t believe it.”

“Did you find a penny?” Bobby asked running up beside Tommy.

“No,” Tommy said waiting a moment for suspense. He flashed a dollar in front of Bobby’s face as Bobby’s eyes opened wide. “I found a dollar!”

“Wow! Let’s go get those Gooey Gumdrops!”

“Come on, let’s go!” Tommy and Bobby made a start from their small patch of grass toward the street. “Wait!” Tommy shouted as he put out his hand to hold Bobby back, so they could look both ways before they crossed the street. “Okay, it’s clear,” Tommy said as they both then walked across the street and made their way back to the Gumdrop Shop.

“One box of Gooey Gumdrops, please,” Tommy said to Mr. Grumble, who now had his back turned to the kids because he was restocking the shelves on the wall behind the counter.
Mr. Grumble already started shaking his head again.

“How many times do I have to tell you, you can’t buy a box of Gooey Gumdrops for one penny!” Mr. Grumble said as he was turning around to face the kids. His eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped as he saw Tommy standing there quietly holding up one dollar.

“Where in the world did you get that from?” Mr. Grumble asked in disbelief. “You better not be stealing.”

“Mr. Grumble, I didn’t steal it. I found it abandoned on the grass next to the bus stop. I don’t know where it came from. I was looking for another penny and I found this instead.”

“You did, did you?” Mr. Grumble said, getting his own ideas now, inspired by Tommy this time.

“Yes, I sure did. So like you said, it looks like I can get a box of Gooey Gumdrops now.”

“Well, you sure can!” Mr. Grumble grabbed a box of Gooey Gumdrops and gave it to Tommy. “Well done, my boy! You found that dollar fair and square.”

“Yeah, the wind was blowing hard, but this dollar was not moving at all. It was like it was frozen there for me.”

“Well, now, don’t get to thinking strange ideas, Tommy. In this life, you have to know when to say when.”

Tommy gave Mr. Grumble the dollar and he got his box of Gooey Gumdrops that he could now share with Bobby.

“Thank you, Mr. Grumble,” Tommy said. “It’s a pleasure doing business with you.”

“Same here, kid. Same here.” Mr. Grumble always found it easy to forgive everything as soon as he received a little profit.

Tommy and Bobby walked out of the store high-fiving each other and enjoying what they now called their magical Gooey Gumdrops. Someone up there really wanted them to have their Gooey Gumdrops today.

Question: Do you believe in divine intervention? You can leave a comment by clicking here.