“Here’s your daily cup of coffee,” Coral said to The Man Around the Corner as he sat in his cardboard box home. Since the springtime, Coral had been giving The Man Around the Corner a cup of coffee every day and coins from The Man Upstairs in exchange for him helping her sell her Hamantaschen cookies at the local coffee shop. Since no one else would give him a job, she tried to create one for him.
When he moved into the neighborhood in his cardboard box on the street corner, it was warmer outside, but the latest winter months had been frightful. Coral knew that he could not survive in the bitter cold much longer.
“Thanks, Coral. Don’t be late for school. Run along,” The Man Around the Corner said. He shivered in his cardboard box. He pulled his scarf around his neck and shut the door to his small home on the New York City street corner. Snowflakes fell from the winter sky and blew into his box in sudden gusts. Coral felt nervous leaving him there for the day.
“I’m worried that the snow is going to soak through your cardboard box,” said the nine-year-old girl. She gave him a handful of coins. “What if you get frostbitten? Or your lips turn blue? Are your toes cold?”
“Try not to worry about me. I can go buy soup for lunch,” he said. Then, she dumped more change from Puddles her porcelain pink piggy bank into his open guitar case.
Every day, The Man Upstairs dropped coins through the heating vent in Coral’s family apartment. The coins collected in her tin can under the vent, and Coral promised The Man Upstairs to give them away to do good in the world. Coral knew that even a gift as small as a penny had the ability to change someone’s circumstance for the better. One penny after another would add up after a while, even if it was just a start.
“I don’t understand why other people are not giving you help,” Coral said. She gazed at The Man Around the Corner as he held his guitar. “The change in your guitar case is mostly from The Man Upstairs. What is wrong with everyone?”
“I’ll see you on your walk home from school later today,” The Man Around the Corner said with a cough. If the cough didn’t go away by tomorrow, she would have to buy him medicine from the local pharmacy. “I’m trying to learn a new song by John Denver called ‘Sunshine on My Shoulders.’ Maybe I can play it for you by this afternoon!”
“Okay, but I don’t think soup is going to be enough for you to eat,” Coral said. “We’ll talk about this later.”
After school when Coral was walking home, she came across a man with a bullhorn, and his voice carried for blocks. She knew immediately that she needed one of her own.
“No more bullets,” he yelled, as he protested gun violence in public schools and asked for stricter regulations. “Our children should be safe in school!”
“Where did you get that bullhorn? Can I borrow it, please?” Coral said. She took the bullhorn from the protestor and examined it. The snowstorm seemed to grow larger by the minute. “I promise to bring it back.”
“Hey! I didn’t say you could have my bullhorn! Fine, keep it. I have another one. Maybe your voice needs to be heard,” he shouted at Coral. He dug in his backpack and pulled out another bullhorn and started his speech where he left off.
As Coral approached The Man Around the Corner, she spoke into the bullhorn, and it reached her parents’ windows.
“Give to The Man Around the Corner! Donate now!” Coral announced. “Stop walking past him! Stop pretending that you don’t see him!”
As Coral protested with her bullhorn, snowflakes stacked on the sidewalk.
“Soon I can build an igloo for The Man Around the Corner,” Coral said through the bullhorn. “It might be warmer than the cardboard box.”
The Man Around the Corner stepped out of his cardboard box and looked up at the Graf family apartment. Coral hoped that her parents would not get upset with her for being so vocal.
“Is that Coral?” Mr. Graf yelled from the open apartment window. “Young lady! What are you doing out there in this snowstorm with a bullhorn?”
Coral decided to ignore her father’s comments and persist in protesting.
“The Man Around the Corner needs your help! I gave him my coins from The Man Upstairs, but he also needs you!” Coral announced. “The rest of the neighborhood needs to contribute, so he can move from his homeless cardboard box. I am staying here until The Man Around the Corner moves him from his current home. You can put your coins in his guitar case. I don’t want to hear any more excuses from anyone. Give!”
“You are absolutely not staying out there in the snowstorm!” Mrs. Graf yelled out the open apartment window. “I’m coming out there to get you!”
“Coral, your mom and dad won’t let you stay here,” The Man Around the Corner said. He sneezed, and Coral handed him a tissue to blow his nose. “Several people are angry that I’m even taking up space on the street corner, but I have nowhere else to go.”
“I can’t believe that people would walk past your cardboard box,” she said. She tossed her book bag in his home. “How is the new song coming? I’d love to hear it.”
The Man Around the Corner pulled out his guitar and played a flawless rendition of “Sunshine on My Shoulders.” For a moment, Coral felt like all was right in the world. All the sun did shine on her shoulders, as well as the shoulders of The Man Around the Corner.
“What are you studying in school?” he said to Coral, as he paged through her math book. “I learned this stuff years ago.”
“If you learned this stuff years ago, why are you living in a cardboard box?” Coral said with disgust. She stood back up again and started shouting through the bullhorn.
“If The Man Upstairs ever gave you anything, you’d keep it for yourselves,” Coral said through the bullhorn. “You need to think about other people and their lives and feelings. Give to The Man Around the Corner.”
“I’ve met The Man Upstairs, and he does give me wads of cash when I’m hungry,” The Man Around the Corner said. “He is the kindest person.”
“Really? I’ve never met him in person,” Coral said to The Man Around the Corner. “We talk through the heating vent.”
Thanks to Coral’s persuasiveness, neighbors came out of their homes to contribute to The Man Around the Corner’s dilemma. Spare change and dollar bills piled up in his open guitar case. Coral felt hopeful that he would soon have his own warm apartment.
“Well, we’re making progress,” Coral said, as she counted the money that fell into the instrument case. Then, Coral looked up to see her mother and father standing in front of her with a tray full of food from the family deli.
“Coral, what in the world are you doing?” Mr. Graf said. He handed The Man Around the Corner a brisket sandwich.
“Honey, we can hear you all the way up in the apartment,” Mrs. Graf said. She held a bag of desserts. “We’re worried that someone might call the police with a noise complaint.”
“He can’t live out here in the cardboard box anymore. Is there an open single apartment in our building? Maybe we have enough money between The Man Upstairs and the neighbors’ donations to get a small place for him to live,” Coral said to her parents. “We’ve been getting more donations in the guitar case, but I think he needs a job at our deli.”
“Yes, he can stay with us tonight,” Mr. Graf said, as he looked at his wife with compassion. “It’s too cold outside. Then, in the morning, we will talk to the landlord about finding him his own apartment somehow.”
“Maybe he can help your dad in the deli with the meats,” Mrs. Graf said. “We always need help with the display case. Then, he would have enough money to pay the rent.”
“Good! You can stay with us until The Man Upstairs gives you enough coins to move into your own place, plus you’ll have a job at the deli,” Coral said. She hugged The Man Around the Corner. “We’ll have fun! I watch cartoons on Saturday morning and eat desserts.”
“Thank you so much, Coral,” The Man Around the Corner said. He crawled from his soggy cardboard box. When he stood up, he was taller than Coral first thought. Coral felt like he deserved to be treated like a person with a heart, not a lump on the sidewalk.
“I knew the coins from The Man Upstairs were enough to change even the worst situation,” Coral said, as she walked back to her warm apartment with The Man Around the Corner and her parents in the snow.
She looked at her empty tin can and knew it would soon be full again.
Copyright 2015 Jennifer Waters
Sequel to "The Man Upstairs: The Story of Coral Graf and Coins from a Tin Can" (1/3/15), "The Man Downstairs: The Story of Coral Graf and Her Missing Coins" (7/13/15), "The Man Next Door: The Story of Coral Graf and the Neighborhood Coins" (8/5/15), and "The Man Across the Street: The Story of Coral Graf, a Hanukkah Miracle, and the Landlord with a Cigar" (9/10/15).
Dedicated to my grandmother, Augusta Renner Graf Waters.
No comments:
Post a Comment