It All Amounts to Nothing in the End

"Thank you for calling Wells Fargo. This is Taj, may I have your first and last name?"

“Carole, C-A-R-O-L-E Stevans, S-T-E-V-A-N-S.”

"How can I help you today, Carole?"

“Well, I just checked my bank- and almost hit the floor- There's an extra hundred thousand dollars in there! Obviously a mistake.”

"I completely understand your concern. I’ll take a look at your account and see if I can figure out what’s going on. I’m going to place you on a brief hold."

Taj clicked into Carole’s account. The deposit required Carole’s account number and correctly-spelled name. Whoever sent it, meant it.

Taj picked up the phone and explained the situation.

“But that’s not possible.”

"I understand. I would feel the same way. I’m going to escalate this to my supervisor. My advice would be to leave it, pretend it’s not there, and we will get this worked out quickly."

“You can’t tell me who sent it?”

"I only have access to their account number. I see that it was sent from a foreign bank account. I have escalated the issue. You can expect a call back before the end of the day from a supervisor."

“FOREIGN? Am I being scammed? This isn’t one of those prince-in-Nigeria/ help-save-a-starving-orphan things is it?”

"Like I said, I only have limited account access. I’ll have a supervisor reach back out."

Taj hung up and leaned back on his chair. His deskmate Humberto was just getting off a call. “Tell me why this lady from Missouri just got a hundred grand deposit that she knows nothing about? I couldn’t find anything wrong.”

“What did you say?” Humberto asked, “I just hung up with some guy from Pittsburgh. Same thing happened to him. He had a million in his bank.”

Taj picked up his blinking phone. A thick southern accent spilled over it:

“Hi, I’m just letting y’all know I have two million dollars sitting in my bank account, and frankly, if it’s still here tomorrow, I’m spending it. Now I’m a good Christian woman and called. For the honesty, I do think I deserve a ‘lil reward, ya know, 50K or so. Seeing that this was clearly your fault. I know at least three other people have the same thing- and let me tell you- they ain’t being near as righteous as me- They’ve already done bought stuff-”

Can you please hold?

He switched to another phone call. Then another, and another…

Deposit two million. Deposit fifteen thousand. Six-hundred thousand. Ten million. Five thousand.

The call center was growing louder with chatter. Taj grabbed his phone from his desk drawer. Checking Account balance: $150,063.43, Savings Account balance: $337.12.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” a supervisor yelled, “as you know there are large deposits coming into our customer’s accounts. We don’t know why, or how, except that this is not a Wells Fargo issue alone. We’re shutting down the center for today. Calls not related to this issue will be directed to our India offices. I urge all of you to not touch the money if your account was affected.”

**

There was an uneasy feeling in the airport as Taryn Holcombe, a reporter for Charlotte’s third largest news station, got off the plane. She tried to repress her worries, rationalizing it as nothing more than a side effect of growing up in a post 9/11 world. Walking towards the exit, she quickly saw what all the commotion was. Across every tv read: “MILLIONS OF DOLLARS DEPOSITED”, “TERRORIST OR PHILANTHROPIST?”

She dug her phone out of her pocket and checked her bank. The sight of it made her shudder; an extra $20,000 was sitting in her account.

Her phone rang a second later. “What is going on, Ross?”

“We don’t know. So far, every financial expert we spoke to says the money’s real. This isn’t just them changing a few numbers on a computer. They sent it from legitimate accounts. Jess and I got $280,000. Turn to the live news on your phone, The President’s about to come on .”

“Alright, I’ll look. How’s Beanie?”

“I just got off the phone with Jessica, your kid’s great. My twelve-year-old’s been sending me links for yachts for two hours, and my 18-year-old is now a goddamn millionaire.”

“Connor too?”

“EVERYONE, TARYN! Jess already paid off the mortgage for Christ’s sake!” Ross’s voice was cracking. “I’ll be there soon to get you.”

Taryn hung up and flipped live-feed on. She saw the President standing at the podium. “Good evening. I’m going to keep this brief. At 2:36-2:52 pm there were millions of deposits ranging from $3,000 to ten million made to bank accounts across the US with no clear pattern. We believe the responsible party was able to access sensitive tax information. Any person who attached a valid account and routing number was affected. We believe this was an effort to topple our economy.”

A reporter jumped on the momentary silence. “Mr. President, every financial analyst we’ve spoken to has said that this money is real. Are American people able to spend this money?”

To the nation’s surprise, he took a breath and answered.

“I would urge every American citizen: Do not spend this money. We have to work with foreign governments. We still do not know who sent it and what it means when you spend it.”

“But, Mr. President, as Americans we have a right to spend it, yes?”

The president spoke again, angrier:

“This is not $20 dropped on the ground with no owner in sight, and I will not feed into conjecture and speculation. This is America, and your rights are intact, but at this point, we do not know what we are dealing with.”

With that, the president stepped back and a slew of presidential aides swarmed the podium. “At this time we will no longer be taking questions. We will keep the public informed once new information is brought to light. Thank you.”

Taryn sat at the airport for four hours, watching various people in uniforms walk off the job.

“I don’t understand why it’s so busy. It’s only been eight hours.” Ross said from the driver’s seat. There can’t possibly be this many people who can fly at the drop of a hat.” A crossing guard stood, not paying attention. Ross pondered the obvious, the crossing guard was all-but-ready to walk off.

They passed a bank ATM with an endless line. “People are trying to slip out of sight before the government gets ahead of this. Best way to do that is cash,” Ross said

Beanie came running out as they pulled in. At five-years-old, she was missing six teeth. Her favorite hobby was seeing what food she could fit through the sizable gap.

Taryn walked in and greeted Jessica. “You look exhausted,” she said. Taryn wanted to say the same, but just gave a half-hearted smile instead.

“The bedroom is set.”

“SABINA! Come to bed with me. Say goodnight to Aunt Jessica and Uncle Ross.”

***

“Hey, you need to wake up!” Jessica was furiously shaking Taryn.

Taryn sat up; drool crusted in the corner of her mouth.

“Amazon’s site crashed, so did Walmart and a bunch of others.” Jessica shoved a small black notebook in her face. There was a list of over twenty companies scribbled on the pages.

“What? How?”

“Too many orders? I’m not completely sure; but that’s not the worst part. She put the notebook down and held up her phone. “WHERE ARE THE WORKERS?” was the headline across the top of the screen.

“What is this?”

“It’s a plea to the public to go to work. Amazon, McDonald’s, Exxon, Walmart, Apple...all releasing statements.

“When was this?” Taryn was completely alert now.

“Started around 4 am. I couldn’t sleep, I’ve just been refreshing the news. All these orders, literally millions more than normal, and no one’s there to fill them. The spokesman’s begging workers to come in. The comments are really nasty. People are hashtagging #NoMoreSalvesToTheSystem.”

Taryn gestured to go to the kitchen to not wake Beanie. Ross was already sitting there. She called into the station.

A gruff older man picked up. “I was waiting for you.”

“What’s going on, Craig?” Craig was the smartest person Taryn knew. He took all the complex financial news and converted it into a watered-down, 15-second blip.

“Stock market’s total garbage. Ever watch rhythmic gymnastics? Gold medal.”

“What does this mean?”

It means the economy can’t possibly sustain this. Billions of dollars were just dumped. In the next 24 hours, I expect the number of people showing up to work to range between 37-58%. I’m predicting ain’t no coming back from this one, baby!”

“I don’t understand. How can more money in the economy be this bad?”

“Because I make 50k a year before taxes here. I just got eight years’ worth of work dumped into my account. What do I need the job for? I gotta go though, Taryn, we’re about to go on.”

Jessica was sitting looking even more worried. “I shouldn’t have paid off the house.” as if her moment of weakness soley crashed the United States economy.

“I don’t think it would matter. We need to figure something out. We need to go to my parents; at least for a little while.”

The phone rang. “Mom. It’s me.”

“Taryn. Are you all alright? I didn’t know when your plane landed.”

“Is Dad up?”

“Hel-hello-who is it?” Taryn heard her Mom mumble her name.

“You need to get down here immediately.” her Dad didn’t bother greeting her. Big cities are going to crumble. Your brothers and I were coming to get you and Beanie in the morning.” Taryn always resented her parent’s small-town mindset, but now felt immense comfort in it.

She scanned through the news on her phone. “Bank run”, “bottom out”, “Greater Depression” popped out.

“I’ll be there. Ross and Jessica might come with the kids too if things look bad.”

“As long as his deadbeat brother isn’t with him.” her dad said. No one had seen him in months. He sent Beanie $5 on her birthday from somewhere in Massachusetts.

The plan was made.

That morning there was no wrapping Beanie up in a blanket, still asleep at 4:00 am and driving across town. Ross didn’t come out and scoop up her (and her little blue Frozen backpack) out of the backseat and gently lay her in bed with Jessica to sleep for another two hours. Instead, they started their journey to the middle-of-nowhere of South Carolina.

****

“It’ll be $202.10.” The man said.

“Excuse me?”

“Price is increased for inflation. Sign’s right over there.”

“You’re kidding?” Ross said.

“Son, I own this fine establishment. I shut my machines down to control who gets my gas. I’m letting you have some because I recognize you from the news,” he said pointing to Taryn, “my wife loves you. I couldn’t look her in the eye tonight if I knew I left you stranded. But, regardless, supply and demand tells me that this is a scarce resource, and I’ll charge accordingly”

They obliged. The drive was slow and worrying. Lines wrapped around bank parking lots. The further away from the city they got, the more relaxed they were. The poor, rural, backwoods county was no one's destination. When they pulled down the long dirt driveway chickens and barn cats scurried out of the way. Her mom ran out and hugged Taryn, her brother scooped a gleeful Beanie up.

“Did you see the latest news?” her mom said, “All bank accounts are frozen.” Everyone checked. A message popped up apologizing for the “inconvenience.”

“You’re all in the right place.” Her Dad proclaimed. “We never had a lot of money. People thought we were foolish. Now money means nothing and we have everything we need. A garden, chickens, goats, Buddy down the road has hundreds of cows, our neighbor even makes wine. We’ve suddenly become the richest people in the world. ”