The Medal

THE MEDAL
Clyde Robert Bulla

Sarah Ida Becker was staying with her aunt Claudia for the summer and was determined to find a job to earn some spending money. Al Winkler, the owner of a shoeshine stand, was the only person who would hire a young girl without experience. Sarah Ida accepted the job.

Every evening after work, Sarah Ida was tired. But every morning she was ready to go back to shoeshine corner. It wasn't that she liked shining shoes, but things happened in shoeshine stand. Every costumer was different. Every day she found out something new.

Some things she learned by herself like how much polish to use on a shoe. A thin coat gave a better and quicker shine. Some things Al told her. "When a costumer comes here, he gets more than a shine," he said. "He gets to rest in a chair. When you rub with the cloth, it feels good in his feet. When you tie his shoelaces a little tighter, it makes his shoes fit better. Anyway, I hope they do."

One warm, cloudy afternoon, he said, “we might as well close up."

"Why?" she asked. "It’s only three o'clock."

"It’s going to rain. Nobody gets a shine on a shiny day."

He began to put away the brushes and shoe polish. She helped him.


"Maybe you can run home before the rain," he said. A few big drop splashed on the sidewalk. "No. too late now."

They sat under the little roof, out of the rain.

"Hear that sound?" he said. "Every time I hear rain on a thin roof, I get to thinking about when I was a boy. We lived in an old truck with a tin roof over the back."

"You lived in a truck?"

"Most of the time. We sleep under the tin roof, and when it rained, the sound put me to sleep. We went all over the south in that truck."
 
"You and your mother and father?"

"My dad and I."

"What were you doing, driving all over the south?"

"My dad sold medicine."

"What kind?"

"Something to make you strong and keep you from getting sick."

"Did you take it?"

"No. I guess it wasn't any good."

She had never before heard him talk much about himself. She wanted him to go on.

"Was it fun living in a truck?"

"Fun? I wouldn't say so. Riding along was all right. Sometimes my dad and I stopped close to the woods, and that was all right, too. But I never liked it when we were in town selling medicine. Dad would play the mouth harp, and he made me sing. He wanted me to dance a jig, too, but I never could."

She try to imagined Al as a little boy. She couldn't at all. "Why did he want you to sing and dance?" she asked.

"To draw a crowd. When there was a crowd, he sold medicine. We didn't stay anywhere very long except once. We stayed in one place six months. My dad did farm work, and I went to school."

He told her about the school. It was just outside a town. The teacher was Miss Miller. The schoolhouse was only one room.

"There was this big stove," he said, "and that winter I kept the fire going. Miss miller never had to carry coal when I was there."

"Did you like her?" asked Sarah Ida. "Was she a good teacher?"

"Best teacher I ever had. Of course, she was just about the only one. I hadn't been to school too much, but she took time to show me things. Do teacher still give medal in school?"

"Sometimes. Not very often."

"Miss Miller gives medals. They were all alike. Everyone had a star on it. At the end of school you got one if you good in reading or writing or spelling or whatever it was. Everybody wanted a medal, but I knew I’d never get one because I wasn't the best in anything. And at the end of school, you know what happened?"

"What?"

"She called my name. The others thought it was a joke. But she wasn't laughing. She said, 'Al wins the medal for building the best fire.'"

"And it wasn't a joke?" asked Sarah Ida.

"No. she gave me a medal. One of the big boys said, 'you better keep that, Al, because it's the only one you'll ever get.''

"And did you keep it?" he held up his watch Cain. Something was hanging from it something that look like a worn, old coin.

"That’s what you won?" asked Sarah Ida.

He nodded.

"That’s a medal" she said. “That little old piece of tin?"

She shouldn't have said it. As soon as the words were out, she was sorry.
Al sat very still. He looked into the street. a moment before, he had been a friend. Now he was a stranger.
He said, "Rain’s stopped for awhile anyway."

He slid out of his chair. She got up too. "I...." she began.

He drags the folding door across the stand and locked up.

"Go on. Run," he said. "Maybe you can get home before the rain starts again."

She stood there. “I didn't mean what you think I did," she said. “That medal it doesn't matter if it's tin or silver or gold. It’s doesn't matter what it's made of, if it's something you like. I said the wrong thing, but it wasn't what I meant. I....." he had his back to her. She didn't think he was listening. She said, "Listen to me!"

He turned around. "You like ice cream?"

"Yes," she said.

"Come on. I’ll buy you a cone."

She went with him, around the corner to pearl's ice cream shack.

"What kind?" he asked.

"Chocolate," she said.

They sat on a bench inside the shack and ate their chocolate cones.

"It’s raining again," he said.

"Yes," she said.

Then they were quiet, while they listened to the rain. And she was happy because the stranger was gone and Al was back.

Later that summer, Sarah Ida faced a problem. Al was hit by a car and had to stay in the hospital. Sarah Ida wanted to keep the stand open by herself, but she was not sure she could do it. To find out what she did and what she learned during that importance summer in her life, read the shoeshine girl by Clyde Robert Bulla.