20000 and the Cost of Generosity

When Steve woke up on that chilly March morning, he didn’t think it would be any different than the last however many days of Marchtober since the pandemic started. He had been working from home as an administrator to a medium-sized accounting firm. The office phone had been forwarded to his cell - something that haunted him regularly. With tax season starting his phone was more of a curse than a blessing.

Sitting down at his home office with his morning bowl of slightly burnt oatmeal his eyes immediately went to his cell phone. The screen was on, informing him that the morning calls had already begun. Begrudgingly he sat down, put his oatmeal to the side, answered the call in his usual customer service voice, and listened to how he could help this individual. It was a sweet-sounding lady looking for assistance getting her taxes done as her son couldn’t come over to help her this year. Social distancing strikes again. With a smile, he let her know that the firm would be happy to help if she could mail in her tax forms or have someone deliver them to the office.

Content to have started the day off on a good note, he hung up his phone and put it in front of him. Reaching for his oatmeal, he realized that he had picked up his phone from a different place than normal. It had been resting on top of a little black notebook. Nothing stood out about this notebook, but he knew it wasn’t one of his. He looked inside and saw a balancing sheet. All that was written was $20,000.00 in black under the heading "Debit" on the left side. The middle had a column labeled "Credit" with nothing in it, and a column labeled "Memo" was to the right also entirely blank.

Letting out a deep exhale Steve pondered this notebook and why he had it. It didn’t match anything from the firm, and nobody should have been able to leave such a thing on his desk in his apartment. Not sure what else to do with it, he put it in a clear spot on top of his monitor stand and went back to his work.

It wasn’t long before he found himself absently on Facebook. Scrolling through his timeline there was an update about a local animal shelter that had received another batch of abandoned puppies. He hated seeing stories like that. He never had enough to justify being able to donate and his apartment had a clear no pets policy. Against his better judgment, he opened up the link to see what had happened.

A litter of pitbull puppies had been found in a plastic container near a local pet store. They appeared to have been there for a few hours and were in fine health. The rescue was looking for donations of blankets, toys, formula, and money to cover medical expenses. Steve read it once again wishing he could afford to move somewhere else or help these dogs. According to the article, they only required $2,000 to be able to care for these dogs until they would be old enough for adoption. They had already been named after characters from Grease - with a Danny, Sandy, Rizzo, Frenchy, Jan, and Putzy. He shared the article hoping someone would be able to help them and went back to his email.

The next few hours continued in that slow but fast way a demanding job does. You feel every minute but at the same time, hours pass before your eyes. When he next took a break it was early in the afternoon and his oatmeal had long gone hard. He straightened his posture, felt a few things pop in his back, and decided to stand up. His physiotherapist would not be impressed if he hadn’t stood up or stretched all day. Setting his status to “be right back’ he started walking towards the kitchen. Only a couple of steps away from the desk, he turned back to grab that weird notebook again. In the kitchen, he microwaved some leftover pizza and started a cup of coffee. When everything was doing what it needed to, he thumbed open the book again. Now, in red under the Credit heading was a new entry:

$2,280.00 | Eastside Animal Rescue

Subtotal: $17,720.00

Strange. He knew where it went and what it meant. He kept thinking about the strange notebook and entry while he ate the cardboard-like pizza and drank down his tolerable coffee. Absent-mindedly he went back to his desk and put the notebook back on his monitor stand.

His workday proceeded in a blur, with the occasional call and far too many emails. Nothing else really stood out to him. In the last hour, he found himself back on Facebook out of habit. This time scrolling through for an eye for other charity cases. It didn’t take long before he found an old high school friend who was looking for recommendations for a good mechanic who doesn’t charge an arm and a leg. Apparently, the last cold snap had snapped their timing belt and they couldn’t afford to get it to the mechanics and repaired. Seeing an opportunity to test his theory, Steve thought about how he would help Aaron out if he could afford to do so. Immediately he flipped open the book to see if anything changed.

$3493.98 | Reliable Auto

Subtotal: $14,226.02

Looking back to his computer, he refreshed his feed to see a new post from Aaron thanking the 'anonymous donator' who just covered the cost of the trip and a replacement timing belt! Thinking he had hit his lucky break Steve decided to look around for what he had been neglecting for himself. He didn’t have enough for a new apartment or a house - so that was out of the picture. He rarely left his home since COVID hit, and even then he usually biked or bussed to work. He did realize he had not treated himself to a good meal in, in a long time. So he went through his phone looking at who offered the best meals he could cook at home or get delivered. Finding a local steak house offering a filet mignon and directions to make it like the restaurant - he ordered it without a second thought. It came to a fair bit, but he figured it would be a perfect test. So, he made the $140 order, added a generous 25% tip (hey, it’s not his money), and waited for his dinner to arrive. His workday officially over now - he excitedly opened his notebook again.

$35.00 | Artisan Steakhouse

Subtotal: $14,226.02

Steve took one look at those numbers and did the math. The money could only be used for others - even in the form of generous tips. Well, he was a little upset with himself for splurging so much but he didn’t doubt he would enjoy his meal. He may not have splurged on the side of king crab legs or the glass of whiskey he added - but it would be a good meal either way.

Steve put his phone on silent, threw his now-cold coffee in the microwave, and fell into his couch seat. His workday was done and he had about fourteen thousand dollars to put towards something or someone. He thumbed through Facebook some more and went through his family chats to see what was happening there. His sister and her husband were sleep-deprived with their new child, and his brother and his fiance were continuing to look for employment. She hadn’t been able to get any contract work and his job let him go back in December. Steve's parents were doing well enough, but just took out another loan to cover a new car and were joking that they were on the retirement 95 plan. Steve responded with his usual array of “sorry to hear it” and laugh emojis and sighed. He knew he should help them, and reluctantly decided he would figure out how to do so. Fearing the consequences of doing math in the notebook, he found a scrap envelope on his side table. He scribbled down some numbers until he was happy with how he could help his family out. He took his best guesses on his parent's auto loan and how much his sister was missing out on since she began parental leave. He could only shoot in the dark for his brother’s family. Satisfied with his guesses he took out the notebook and his cleanest red pen and wrote the following in the Credit column:

$4742.00 | Jen & Dave Collins

$6842.01 | Veronica & Wilson Brooks

$2642.01 | Jack Brooks & Elizabeth Angeles

His writing stood out like a sore thumb compared to the beautiful printing of whatever or whoever had added the previous entries. He was happy with it though, or at least as happy as he could be knowing he would have liked to have some extra money in his own account.

Deciding to check again and see if it automatically came up with a subtotal (though he knew his math was right) he was shocked to see the following:

Subtotal: -$161.70

Looking back at his phone, he realized it was the cost of his food with delivery and taxes. So apparently not only could he not use it for personal gain, but somehow he owed the notebook money? He wasn't sure how it would collect - but decided that was a problem for the future.

Not too much later, approximately about the time his neglected-yet-again coffee had gone cold, he got a call from the front door of his apartment complex. His food had arrived. He let the delivery person know he would be right down. Anticipating his delicious meal, he ran downstairs. Knowing the number of calories he was about to consume, he opted for the stairs over the elevator. The driver kindly left the packages at the door upon confirmation that Steve made the order and could order alcohol and left. Steve opened the door, took the few steps outside, and grabbed his food. Carefully, and needlessly, he balanced his meal in his arms while he put the new ‘high-tech’ key into the deadbolt. He turned it and made a horrifying realization. The end of the key was turning while the deadbolt and mechanism were not. He had broken his key inside the lock. Swearing his luck, he called the apartment emergency line to see about getting in. They were able to buzz him in but informed him that fixing the lock and getting a replacement key wouldn’t be cheap. He acknowledged this begrudgingly and made his way upstairs. Thankfully they hadn’t gotten around to upgrading the lock on his door yet - and his old key got him in without further problems.

With that out of the way, he went ahead and made his extravagant meal. It was all he wanted, though a little colder than it was probably meant to be. Before he turned in for the night, he took one last look at the notebook. On top of his writing being changed to match the other contents, there was a new entry in black on the debit side.

$161.70 | Lock Repairs and Replacement Keys

He put the notebook back and let out a defeated sigh. At least he knew how much he was going to be charged for the repairs and the new key.