He’d bought the shacket in a charity shop. He had loved that term and had repeated the word shacket ad nauseam, until his wife could no longer take it and snapped at him.
He did not mind, he was aware it must not be easy to hear the same word repeated a million times in different tones of voice. He loved her and she loved him, so, snapping was well within bounds.
As soon as he got home with it, she took it away and washed it, and only after that he got the chance to really inspect it. This is when he discovered the inner pocket. Oh the joy!
As David discovered, the shacket had an inner pocket, but what made it extraordinary was the fact that it was extremely large. So large actually that it seemed to be hidden because it could be confused with the lining of the garment, but it was not the lining, it was just a very large, well thought out, inner, secret pocket.
David was thrilled!
So thrilled in fact that he started to put all his bits and pieces in the large, hidden pocket, and because of the way it was sewn you could barely notice it, even when it was bulging with all David’s must have objects.
This was how the shacket became, not only the favorite piece of clothing, but also, a necessity because of all the things it contained in its pocket.
When it needed washing, which was often because it was worn so much, the wife would take all the things from the pocket and put them in a small basket, and once it was dried she would carefully put them all back, even used candy wrappers, as David was the one that needed to tidy them when needed. She was the only one that truly understood and respected his way of being.
David loved his job as a Visual Merchandiser for one of the large shopping centers, and each morning he would take the bus 122 that dropped him meters away from the employee entrance of the shopping centre.
David was very particular about symmetry and had an uncanny vision about how to arrange objects so they create an image, funny or unusual. He did it all in his head, and then with a pencil on big pieces of paper, so his team understood his vision and brought it to life. David loved his job, and was immensely proud when they created a big tomato out of tins of tomato soup, it was even featured in the local paper. A job well done!
David was very happy in his life, but had one particular trait that made it difficult at times for him. David was very anxious, very afraid, and he spotted dangers everywhere he went. Before seeing the beauty of something, David first saw its dangers, and sometimes, he would get so hung up on them that it took out all the joy of the experience.
As David got older and wiser, and with the support of his wife, he became better at containing these invasive thoughts, but sometimes, especially when he was tired, or a bit sick, or in a very new situation, they would get the better of him and he would just get overwhelmed by fear, that is when he needed the most the amazing things he carried around in his pocket.
This is how David felt one late evening, 10 pm maybe, when he was on the 122 on his way back home. It was much later than David would be out usually, but they had a huge display to finish for a new shop opening. David tried to make his bulky person as small as possible in one of the back seats of the bus, just wishing the trip away and surveying his environment.
That was when a loud bunch of people got on, quarreling about something, sounded like somebody owed money to someone else, and they wouldn’t give it back. Part of the group was siding with the borrower and it was a very noisy argument, made even louder by the confined space of the bus.
David decided he would rather walk the last two stops, than be there so he got up and rang for the next stop. At the same time the bus driver hit the brakes for some reason, and the stressed David bumped forcefully in the conversing crowd. One of them pushed him back, at the same time David reached out for his inner pocket. When David, big and untidy looking, did that, out of nowhere the man reacted and punched him squarely in the face.
The blow was so great that, it pushed David and he fell on his back in between the bus seats. For a moment he was so confused that he did not really understand what happened, but when he did, he decided he best stay down there until the storm passes.
He could hear voices in his proximity.
‘What did you do you idiot?!’
‘I thought he had a knife …’
‘Good, now you are on the bus camera hitting a bloke. God grief, I could not write this!’
The second person’s voice was heard again.
‘Gerry, I’d better not see this scene in one of your shows!!! What do we do?’
‘Check on him! Help him up! What do you mean what do we do???’
David closed his eyes quickly pretending to still be out.
‘Hey … guy … I am so sorry … are you ok?’, the man leaned over and David could smell a nice perfume. That smell in a way signaled him to open his eyes.
David accepted the offer to get up and sat on one of the many seats available to him.
By now the bus was fully stopped, the crowd was gawking, some people were filming, impromptu show … with a very unwilling star.
‘I need to go home! Please let me pass!’
It was like a spring was activated and David was trying to find his way out through the crowd. Somehow he managed, and, when he was finally out on the sidewalk, he saw that the man that had punched him was right behind him.
‘Wait, I want to apologize!’
David walked even faster without looking back.
‘Listen!’, the man shouted. ‘I was stabbed once and ever since I have this irrational fear … I am so sorry! I really am not a violent person, and I feel so bad for having assumed …’
‘Nessie …’, David stopped and turned around.
‘What?’, the man did not expect the reaction.
David dove into his inner pocket and took out a squishy, colorful, dinosaur looking toy.
‘Nessie! I got her in Scotland! When I get anxious I squish her and it grounds me!’
The man was now beaming and his eyes teared up.
‘You should get one! I cannot give you mine, it is a memento. They sell them in the National Museum of Scotland.’
‘I think she is wonderful!’, the man was clearly touched by the advice.
‘Do you know in Edinburgh all the museums and galleries are free? You can visit all of them for free! And they all have toilets! …’
‘David, David!’, his wife came running towards him and they fell into a loving, all-encompassing hug.
‘What happened to you?’ she was looking at his face pain stricken.
The man came closer.
‘I am so sorry! I did that! I cannot explain how bad I feel!’, he truly did sound sorry. At the same time his friends joined them.
David could recognize the voice of the determined man from earlier. Now he could see he was a tall, extremely good looking man, dressed with great taste.
‘Are you all, all right?’, he more like demanded and answer than inquired for one.
They all nodded. A sense of relief and peace had fallen over the small group gathered on the sidewalk.
‘We will go home now!’, David’s wife announced and turned around.
‘Of course! Please take these tickets to our play, it is at the Gaiety for another two weeks. I would love for you to see it!’, the man, later labelled as the hitter, said.
‘Oh … ok! I love the theatre! We might actually go!’, David took the tickets and smiled broadly to his wife. ‘Won’t we?’
‘To the play of the person that punched you in the face? Sure, why not!?’
In the darkness they had not seen that the tickets were actually VIP tickets that granted them access to a reserved area for VIP guests, where there was free food and drink, and best of all, there were many celebrities that David loved from the telly.
They had a great night, and each time they were asked how they knew the director and the playwright David giddily answered:
‘Well, he punched me!’
And then he would proceed to tell the story all the way from the beginning.
‘I had bought this shacket in a charity shop…’