The Scarlet Sweater

Prologue: Good 'Ol Goodwill

 In the late 1800s it was decided that, at Louisville Public Schools, the forms of corporal punishment weren’t adequate for their unruly students. In order to keep them in line, Mr. Kasl got the school board together to discuss what should be done.

“Boil them alive!” one member shouted.

“Give them to the Puritans!” another cried.

“Tap them on the hand and say no!” yet another exclaimed.

“These are all good suggestions,” Mr. Kasl said. “But I fear that the goblin we have in the furnace room just isn’t enough. We need another form of punishment to inflict on the children.”

The council around the table pondered what should be done. Several minutes passed. Mr. Kasl grew weary for a solution. Suddenly, a young, spry, member spoke up.

“How about we get them a piece of clothing to wear!” he said. “We could either make it or buy it from the local thrift shop! We could make the children wear it in order to set them apart from the others! Differences deserve to be mocked!”

“Excellent, Nick!” Mr. Kasl said, patting him on the back. “If you keep that up, you just might run things around here some day.”

Nick beamed. He looked around the room. The other members gave disapproving looks.

“There goes Bausch again,” Mr. Peterson whispered to Mrs. Coshow. “Always showing off his superior brain power.” Mrs. Coshow, whose teaching experience dated back to Medieval times, huffed in agreement.

Mr. Kasl had decided that one of the teachers needed to find the article of clothing that was to be used as punishment. He asked for volunteers to step forward… the teachers all did that thing where they pretend to step forward so the one guy who’s not in the loop steps forward and gets picked… Unfortunately, Mr. Bausch was that guy.

“Ah. Nick. I’m so glad you are eager to make our school a better place.”

“But… I… Uh…”

Nick was unsure of where to search for such an article of clothing. Then (like a pillowcase filled with bricks, or a sock full of butter) it hit him—The Goodwill. Nick decided that the best time to stop by the Goodwill was right after he got off work at 12:00 A.M. He just wanted to check and see if they had what it was he was looking for.

The next day (I believe it was a Tuesday, sometime in January), he got off work at precisely 12 o’clock and wandered out to his car. He turned it on and sped out of the parking lot. Upon reaching the Goodwill, he realized that it was not open at midnight… he was so angry, though that he “Hulk-Smashed” the door open. He calmly walked inside and began to search for the perfect tool for punishment.

As one usually does in the Goodwill, Nick wandered to the darkest corner he could find. In that corner he found it… and by “it,” I mean nothing. There was nothing in the corner… He attempted to quell his disappointment and wandered over to the next-darkest corner where he actually did find something. In that corner he had discovered the most disgusting, raggedy, old sweater he had ever seen. He picked it up and about seven mice fell out… They appeared to have been using it as a nest of some sort.

Holding it up to himself, Nick was struck by a sudden thought of genius: he should embroider a letter on the sweater. He took the sweater home (he didn’t pay for it… to be fair, though, nobody was going to miss it anyway) and pulled out his sewing kit. He selected a gold thread and began to stitch… unfortunately, he didn’t actually know how to sew… He decided, in the end, to just leave the disgusting sweater as it was. The next day, feeling quite accomplished, he handed it to Mr. Kasl. This was the first and last time anyone would ever see the Scarlet Sweater… that is, until it was needed for the punishment of a young girl.