‘A Penny Short’ by Pete Hsu

A Penny Short by Pete Hsu, 2016

The magic trick:

Using an O. Henry-styled ironic ending as a point of mockery

Such a good quick story today.

Penny is playing the penny slots at a wedding. She’s called “pretty” and “talented” at different points in the story, but life doesn’t appear to be playing out just as she’d envisioned. We get a feel for some of the major life choices she’s navigating. She even spills her troubles to a stranger who sits down next to her at the slot machines. So when something remarkably lucky happens to that stranger, it almost mocks the entire idea of trying to take control of your own life with well-thought-out decisions. I’d compare it to a classic O.Henry story ending, except that instead the story uses the irony to kind of just throw up its hands in an exhausted shrug.

And that’s quite a trick on Hsu’s part.

The selection:

“You should ask the waitress,” she says.

“I did,” I say. “She doesn’t seem to like me.”

“It’s nothing personal. They just work slow to make you gamble more.”

“That’s funny. Because, actually, I’m not gambling.”

I show her my empty coin bucket. The old lady eyes the bucket and shakes her head, sighing. She fishes her hand into her penny cup and starts taking coins out one at a time. She carefully counts each penny out loud, 22 of them. She hands them to me in a neat little stack.

“Play until these run out, then go home,” she says. “You need rest.”

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