The Coat That Wouldn't Come Off! by A. A. Augustine

stairs too and was holding the impossibly heavy door open starring down at him. Johnny looked
quizzically her and asked, “Hey ,What gives!? Why did we just go in a big circle down that hallway
only to come out a little way down the same alley. And what’s with the door here? I’ve never seen
this before.”
The lady with the polka dotted dress and the blue bird then released the large metal door
closing it tightly with a deep reverberating thud behind her as she stepped down the first stair with
Johnny.
“Oh no, you’ve never passed this door before Johnny. It’s a very special door and we’ve
actually traveled quite far. Quite far. It’s not quite the same alley we we’re just in dear”
Johnny looked up at her, scrunched his face in a questioning manner and said , “But it was
only a little walk ma’am. We haven’t gone that far.”
The lady in the polka dotted dress and blue bird hat then stepped out onto the sidewalk
with Johnny.
“Johnny, in a moment you’ll see just how far we’ve come. Here I’ll help you. That last step
down to Earth… I mean, um, the ground… the alley.” She laughed nervously. “
“Forgive me, it’s my first big job like this. ”But that last step down can be quite a doozy.”
She then lifted Johnny gently up in her arms and set him down into the alley just on the
outside of the doorway steps they just came down from. As she did this, she stepped down next to
him, grabbing him by the hand and leading him into the center of the alley and knelt down in front
of him, placing her hands on his shoulders. She was face to face with him now, looking directly into
his eyes like his mom did whenever she had something real important to say and wanted to make sure
Johnny was actually listening and not just pretending to listen.
“ Do you notice anything different?“ asked the lady rhetorically.
“Hey, you know my ribs aren’t so sore anymore and… and my back doesn’t hurt either.
And I feel kinda lighter. And... well, you sure are pretty. But I think your polka dots were a different
color before.” Johnny was now completely in over his head and overwhelmed, but going along with
it anyway like any normal kid would do.
The lady in the polka dotted dress with the blue bird hat began to laugh, turning her gaze
toward the ground, visibly embarrassed at Johnny’s candor.
“Not that kind of different silly.” She said, “Do you see anything different at all? Look
around!”
Johnny looked around for a second, proudly disclaiming to his newly-found, maiden faire
that he did not, in fact, see anything different.
“Well, no. Not really ma’am. It’s the same old same old, if you ask me!”
The lady then leaned in close to Johnny, shuffling to his left side with her her right arm still
held tight around Johnny’s waist and still knelling on the ground beside him
“Is there anything else? Anything at all? I think there's something you didn’t notice.” She
encouragingly said to Johnny as she pointed down the street again. But this time, toward the doorway
they had just entered in only what seemed like a few moments ago to Johnny. But was in fact, a good
long time ago.
“Do you see that man?” she asked, while still keeping her hand extended outward to an old
man sleeping, curled and shaking in the doorway that they had just come from a few hundred yards
down the alley.
Johnny did see the old man sleeping in a doorway now.
“AWWWW… That’s the man behind the table! You know that lady! Why is he laying
there again?! I know who he really is!”
“Johnny, that’s not the man from behind the table. That's the real old man who asked you
for money on your way to the store the day you tried on the coat!”
The lady in the polka dotted dress and blue bird hat then stood up beside Johnny and pulled
a small mirror out of her dress pocket and tapped Johnny on the shoulder and held it in front of him.
“Here Johnny, take a look at yourself.”
Johnny took a long look in the mirror and then even closer look and then finally snatched
the mirror out of the ladies hands and moved it to an inch of his face and stared with deep
wonderment into it. He moved it all around his face quickly and noticed that it was him alright but a
younger him. A him from a year ago. He began touching his face in disbelief with the mirror pressed