A holiday jingle

Unbeknownst to me, a hole had gradually formed in the right pocket of my winter coat.

Unsuspectingly, I dropped three quarters into my pocket the other day. Silently, the quarters slipped single file through the hole making their way into the nether depths of my coat lining.

I might have actually never noticed, having blissfully forgotten all about the quarters. Except that this morning, as I walked to work, I noticed a faint jangle in time with my gait. At first I thought I must be imagining it. When the jingling sound persisted despite my attempts to shake it from my head, I thought perhaps it was some roadside music. But a quick glance around confirmed this to be unfounded as well.

I stopped. The jangle stopped.

Took a step. One quick jangle. And then silence.

Took two steps. A bunch of jangles. And then silence.

Dammit I thought. I put my hands in my jeans pockets. Nothing. Put my hands in my coat pockets. Nothing again. And then, as I readjusted my coat, I realised that the sound was emanating from somewhere in the coat itself. So I raised different sections of the coat to my ear, shaking each section gently to try and exactly pinpoint the location of the jangle. All this while still leaving my coat on, since it was bitterly cold.

I shudder to think of the sight I made. Luckily, in New YOrk, there's never reason to be embarrassed. There's always someone even weirder.

So in this manner, through some painstaking coat shaking, I realised that there are three quarters nestled noisily in the bottom hem of coat, inside the lining. Nothing to do but go on jangling to and from work all winter, it appears. Just my luck.

I would have been less troubled, perhaps, if they weren't actually quarters - which we collect so dearly for our laundry.