Finders Keepers

It was one of those days where it felt like spring, you could smell spring in the air, the breeze was gentle, the sun felt warm. It was only mid February still, so there are many cold winter days ahead.

I had a last minute idea to take a drive. I always love to do that on these sort of days. I got myself a sweet iced coffee to enjoy and put on my favorite playlist. As I sipped my coffee and sang along to the radio, I spotted an old rickety, run down barn.

There was a small parking area nearby. I slowed the car down and looked around before deciding to turn into the lot. Slowly turning the wheel, I parked off to the side near a tree. I cracked the window a little to enjoy some of that nice fresh air and to observe the barn and all the broken wood and broken glass from the windows. When I became aware of my surroundings in close proximity, I noticed something about 8 feet from where my car was parked. Sitting on top of a rock was a book. I looked around and didn’t see anyone. I didn’t see anything else, just a book. It was a black book. It was tiny. I opened my car door and got out of the car. As I approached the rock where the book was I could see there was nothing written on it , it was just plain black and about 4 inches tall.

I hesitated for a minute and looked around. Then I just picked it up and opened it. There were no pages at all, it was a black case which looked like a book and inside was cash, large bills. I gasped. I felt my eyes get big. I looked around slowly, all around, to see if anyone was watching me. I did not see anything or anyone, so I proceeded to take the money out and place the black case on the rock while I looked closely at the money.

I wondered if it could be counterfeit, but I decided to count it anyway. There were 100, 100 dollar bills, my jaw dropped. There was also a tiny piece of paper inside that read : FINDERS KEEPERS!

I just stood there looking at these things for a long time and looking all around the area. I felt frozen like if I move, someone is going to come attack me for stealing their money.

I stood there not knowing what to do. Should I take this to the police? Keep it, leave it. After a moment of hesitation, I put the cash back inside with the paper and then I placed it back on the rock.

I would never be ok driving away with the money. Guilt would overcome me every day. So I left. I just drove home. I never told anyone about it. Later that night, as I sat down and watched tv, I definitely thought about how nice it would have been to have that much money to pay off bills. I shrugged it off and dosed off.

A few days went by. On a cold Friday morning, I opened my front door to catch a breath of air. As I took in that frigid February air, I saw something. There was some snow and ice on my walkway. It was a little messy, but I saw something odd among the frozen muck so I slipped into my boots and ran down the front steps. As I approached I stopped when I saw what it was. I felt the hairs on my arms stand up. I rubbed my arms as I looked all around me to see if anyone was around. It was the black book/case. The one I saw at the old barn on my drive a few days ago. For several moments I just stood there, thinking, how is this possible? Who would do this? Slowly, I bent over and picked it up. I looked it over real good: front, back, side. Yep, same one. I glanced back at the ground and noticed a small paper, the same one I saw inside the book/box that said: FINDERS KEEPERS. Puzzled, I opened it up and sure enough it still had money inside. I did not take it out. I just put the box back down and went inside.

This has to be some kind of a trick to get me in trouble, I thought to myself, someone must be trying to frame me or something. I don’t really know who or why but these days you just don’t know.

I left that book sitting right there for several days, nobody touched it. I did not touch it. After several weeks, I became used to it being there and didn’t really give it too much thought. One day I walked over to the mailbox to get the mail as a young woman passed by my house. She was walking with an unsteady gait and paused when she saw me. She said it felt like a nice day finally and I agreed. She had a shaky voice but a sweet voice. She pointed to the black book and said, “Oh, you dropped your book”

and right away I said, “It’s not mine. Someone dropped it a while ago.” She asked if she could have it and I picked it up and handed it to her and said, “Be my guest.” The paper that said FINDERS KEEPERS was stuck to the bottom when I picked it up. I saw it as I handed it to her. I didn’t say anything. I just said have a good day and I went back inside the house.

Early August, several months after I saw that woman who took the book, I was sitting outside enjoying some warm summer, late afternoon air, when a blue car pulled up and the same woman got out. She walked smoothly this time, very steady on her feet. She looked healthy and vibrant. She approached me with tears in her eyes, she stood in front of me, looked at me and said, “ Without you, I may not have lived, now I can walk and live a normal life again, so I came by to say thank you.” she looked down, took something white out of her pocket “ Oh, and to give you this.” She handed me an envelope, which was folded in half. She smiled, turned around, and walked to her car, got in, and drove away. I was overjoyed by that short visit . What could she possibly have given me in an envelope?

I opened it up and inside were 20 crispy 100 dollar bills and a piece of paper that said: THANK YOU.