One Small Leap

“Jim?”

“Jim?”

The second one pulled Jim from his daydream.

“What is it?”

“Bo and Sally want us to go hiking with them.”

“Do I have to?”

“It will be good for you.”

Jim opened his Moleskine notebook and flipped through several pages -- one page had only the names of his family – Jessica, Kevin, and Denise. Another page had only “$4,000,000” written on it. He stopped when he got to the page that had “195” written on it. He remembered the promise he’d made to himself that he would get back to his old playing weight and the promise he’d made to his wife that they’d get out more.

With more guilt than enthusiasm, Jim agreed to go and grabbed his hiking boots.

The trail was more difficult than Jim remembered. Or was it that he was in worse shape than he thought? And all that water – Jim was sweating like a pig and had already downed 40 ounces of water. He needed a pit stop.

“Sorry” Jim said – “I need to use the facilities. I’ll catch up.”

With that, Jim scrambled off the trail a few yards where he found a suitable spot to relieve himself. For a brief moment his mind flashed back to his senior year in college, when some buddies had convinced him to hike a similar trail. In a moment of misjudgment Jim had jumped off a small boulder and landed awkwardly. He remembered the sound of his leg snapping and he shuddered. One small leap for Jim had ended what had been a promising career in football. Before the leap he was projected to be a second or third round draft pick; after the leap he was left wondering what might have been.

As he turned to head back up the slope to join the others, something caught Jim’s eye. It was a beat-up looking backpack that someone must have thrown off the trail. “Litterbug” Jim thought. He picked up the backpack and realized it was not empty. Nonetheless, he scrambled back up to the trail and caught up with the rest of the group.

“What’s in the backpack?” Sally asked.

“Probably a rattlesnake” Jim joked.

“With your dumb luck it probably is” Jessica shot back.

Bo was the first to say “Open it.”

With some hesitation, Jim pulled the zipper and gradually opened the bag, holding it at an angle so the sun would illuminate the contents.

“Well?” Jessica said impatiently.

Jim reached in and pulled out two stacks of cash. Jim placed the bag down and flipped through the bills, which had straps around them marked $10,000. No one in the group could believe it. Sure enough, Jim had two stacks of one hundred $100 bills.

“What are you going to do?” Sally asked.

“I know what I’d do” Bo said. “Did you see that movie where the guy found a bunch of money then got hunted down by drug dealers? I’d put it back and walk away. No – I take that back – I’d put it back and RUN away.”

“Jim?” Jessica asked.

“Jim?”

“I’m thinking.”

The backpack was old and well worn – and judging from the dirt crusted on it – it had been out there a long time. Also, one side was much lighter than the other, which indicated it had been in the sun for a long time.

“I’ll turn it in to the police.”

The rest of the hike was eerily silent. Bo kept looking around to make sure no one was following them, and his nervousness rubbed off on the others. Jim began to second-guess his decision before talking through it.

“Look – this backpack has been out here a long time, so whoever left it there isn’t looking for it, but I’ll take it to the police just in case someone reported losing a bag of money. If it’s drug money, they wouldn’t have reported it missing, and if it’s not drug money, then there’s a chance the police know who it belongs to.”

When the group made it back to their car Jessica suggested they split the money, but Bo wanted no part of it. “Bad karma” he said.

Bo took Jim and Jessica back home, and Jim immediately got in his car and headed for the local precinct. The police checked in the backpack, gave Jim a receipt, and told him it would be his in 30 days if no one claimed it.

As the days passed, Jim and Jessica speculated about the lost money, often times until late at night. They ruled out the idea that someone purposefully left it to be found because it couldn’t be seen from the trail. They ruled out drug money because of the odd location – surely dealers wouldn’t go to such an inconvenient location for a drop? Who, then, could have possibly been hiking around with $20,000?

Then again, what were Jim and Jessica going to do with that money? Bo still flatly refused to share in it, even though it was his hiking invitation that led to Jim’s discovery.

“$20,000...” Jim let it trail off as he exchanged glances with Jessica.

“Student loans, braces, groceries…” she replied. They shared a brief chuckle.

“How many days has it been?” It became a running joke between them as they counted down the days until the money would legally become theirs.

When the day finally arrived, they still hadn’t decided what to do with the money, other than to have a nice dinner and deposit the rest.

After dinner, Jim sat in his study and flipped through the Moleskine notebook, thinking it may provide him inspiration on how to handle the money. As he flipped through the pages, he stopped at one and stared, deep in thought.

Jessica approached and looked over his shoulder.

“What’s done is done. You can only move forward.”

“No” Jim said. “That’s not it – I forgave myself for that leap that cost me a pro football career years ago.”

“What then?”

Jim picked up a pen, crossed out the “$4,000,000” that represented the amount of money he estimated he would have made playing football and wrote something else.

“$3,980,000.”

“That’s how much I have left to find in my hiking career.”

They shared a laugh and Jim closed the notebook.