Pennies from Heaven

Miracles don’t happen often.

But one was about to happen that the Potts family

and the whole rest of the town of Penny Haven, USA

and the whole country would never forget.


Chapter 1 The Potts Family

Sixty-year-old Arliss Potts stood alone in the horse barn. Praying. Praying hard. He had just given up the family’s two beloved horses, Tess and Bess, breaking his daughter’s heart and breaking his own heart. It was a trying year for the Potts’ family. For all families in Penny Haven, USA. But especially for the Potts family. Arliss Potts had lost his job recently.

The drought, the third in a row, had spoiled the crops and orchards. They had to sell all their animals. Now the whole farmstead was at stake.

Arliss Potts had decided he was going to kill himself. Arliss looked up. “Lord, please give me a sign. Some kind of sign. Or I’m clearin’ out. I can’t take no more. A week from tonight, if I don’t git a sign, I’m doin’ it. Thank Ya, Lord.”

With his head down, shoulders slumped, Arliss slowly walked out of the horse barn.

A Week Later…

At the dinner table, heads were bowed as Arliss spoke. “Bless us O’ Lord, in these thy gifts which we are about to receive through thy bounty through Jesus Christ.”
“Amen-amen.”
They rose their heads. Arliss’s head was still bowed, eyes closed, his lips moving, as he prayed hard. “A sign. Give me a sign. Amen.”
Arliss rose his head.
“A sign, you said a sign.” Emma Potts, Arliss’s wife said.
“Musta slipped out.”
Arliss turned the radio on and down low.

The Potts family ate an early supper as they had to be at the hunger meal to serve meals for the town’s hungry at their church.
Only Arliss wasn’t going. He told them he didn’t feel well, which he didn’t. Their current state of affairs, having to move, leave his birthplace, and the farmstead, had all taken its toll on him.
After they left, that’s when he would do it: Kill himself.
Arliss’s family, Emma, his wife, Dottie, 16, Sidney,26, his kids, and Liddy, Arliss’s mother, sat together, eating. Only Arliss didn’t eat. He hadn’t eaten much so that his family would have more to eat. That was just the way Arliss was. That kind of man.
Arliss Potts prayed for a sign. A sign to end his woes even during the dinner prayer. But it wasn’t what he expected. It came in the most unexpected way. And it came quickly.
Suddenly, it started to rain. Rain hard. Like hail. Only louder.
“What in blazes is that?”
“That don’t sound like normal rain to me.”
“That don’t sound like normal rain to me.”
“The birds were flying off just minutes ago.
“Pops says it was a bad omen. A bad storm coming.”
It rained hard. And loud. Loud clanking, clanging deafening sounds.
“When it rains it rains...
“It pours.”
“Hard, too.”
“I’ll say.”
“It’ll kill the birds.”
“Let’s head for the basement.”
“It must be hail.”
“That’s the hardest hail I ever heard.
Liddy covered her ears. “It hurts my ears.”
Arliss looked up. “Hope the roof don’t cave in.”
They all scrambled up and looked out the windows.
“What on earth are those? I can’t make heads or tails outta it.”
“That don’t look like real rain to me.”
“Maybe it’s acid rain.”
Sidney ran to get his binoculars and put them up to his face. “It’s pennies!”
“What-what!”

Seconds later…

They opened the kitchen screen door and stared out, spellbound.
“It’s raining pennies…
“From…
“Heaven.”…


. . .

They were scooping up pennies, tons of pennies, and letting them fall from their hands, they laughed, they cried. There were pennies. Pennies everywhere!
Arliss looked up. “It’s a sign. The sign.”


. . .

Two months earlier…
It was the end of March. A warmer March than usual as most of the country was suffering from its third drought in a row. All the hard ground had been plowed up and the crops were in.
Arliss stomped into the kitchen, late, although it was only 8am. “Last of the plantin’ in.” Pausing, he smiled, sniffing. “Um…nothin’ like bacon an’ eggs.”
Emma glanced at him from the table as they all waited to say grace. “Ham and eggs.”
Arliss started for the table.
“Wipe your feet.”
Arliss wiped them on the small rug at the door. “All done. Does it even do any good to plant with this drought?”
“Try is all we can do,” Emma said.
“Try is true,” Arliss added.
He sat down. “Good ole hash brown taters.”
Heads bowed in prayer, as Arliss Potts said grace.
“Bless us O’ Lord in these thy gifts,which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Jesus Christ, our Lord. An’ thank You, Lord, fer sendin’ Your Son an’ fer His sacrifice in dying fer us, in savin’ us, an’ givin’ us eternal life.”
They rose their heads. “Amen-Amen.”