Of stories and endings

I am sure most of you would love a story with a good twist in the end. The grand reveal or an interesting surprise that makes you go “Wow” in wonder. We tend to remember such stories for long and for the sheer excitement it brought the first time you read them. I remember one such story from my middle school and it used to make me feel sad at that time, whenever I had to revise that lesson while preparing for some test or exam. The lesson’s name was “Cop and the Anthem” by O Henry (William Sydney Porter), who became the reason for the first time I ever head the word “Pseudonym”. Till that time, I never knew people related to arts, used different names while writing/performing rather than using their original name!! I used to wonder why without getting a convincing answer to that question for long! 

“Cop and the Anthem” is the story of a poor homeless guy, who sleeps in the local park during night. With harsh winter fast approaching, he wonders how he will manage to survive and when pondering over his place of stay, a fellow homeless person tells him about how prisons are the best place to spend during winter. He narrates how the inmates are taken care of with timely and hot food, warm place to sleep. It “motivates” Soapy, the hero of the story to commit a minor crime and get himself arrested. He first visits a restaurant and at first, he is denied entry by the security who mistakes him for garbage cleaner. Soapy feigns indignance and goes on to have his hearts fill of a good meal. He is convinced that when he says he has no money to pay, he will be handed over to the police. But the hotel manager gets him kicked out of the restaurant. Bruised, but having satisfied his hunger, he looks out for other opportunities to get himself arrested. He tries breaking a glass window, surrendering to the near by beat police, only to have them chase some other person as the vandal. He forcibly takes away an umbrella from some one and almost pleads with that person to get him arrested. Apparently, that man had taken that umbrella having found it unattended and he runs away from Soapy. Soapy sees the pattern and thinks that it is god’s way of telling him that he is cut out for better things in life. On cue he hears an anthem being played in a near by church that takes him back to his younger days, full of hope and positivity. While he stands there wondering about asking for a job that someone had promised him long time back, a police officer who comes by that side, arrests Soapy for suspicious behaviour. The story ends with the judge sentencing him 3 months jail, as he had initially wished. I never knew that I remembered this story completely but the name Soapy, sets the bells ringing when I came across the name in some other book I was reading. The fact that, someone who wanted to change for good gets the opportunity denied for him, used to make me feel so bad for Soapy and every time I read that story, I used to feel very sad. But after nearly three decades of having read it for the first time, I can finally manage to read and finish it with a smile. Not sure if it because I understand the cynicism of the world better now or I have learnt to appreciate the nice twist by the author, but the story somehow remains fresh in mind still!!!