Why the Rush

Little Jack was in a hurry to get home today. As soon as that school bell rang, he was on his feet and out the door. Running as fast as his little feet would take him. His parents finally bought him the new game all his friends were playing, and he couldn’t wait to try it. Jack barely looked around at the traffic or other people as he would run across streets. He zigged, zagged, in, and out of people walking along. He was too excited, and in too much of a hurry. He came across an alley. Suddenly, CRASH!!! Another young man cam running out of the alley also not paying much attention. Slamming right into little Jack, the two of them tumbled into the street. Jack’s head thumped across the pavement. The young man rolled into the front end of an auto. Luckily, the driver was paying attention and stopped in time to lessen the blow he took. The collision caused the two of them to drop their bags. Seemingly unphased by what just happened the young man grabbed his bag and hurried off as if he couldn’t be bothered by this accident that he helped create. The driver, concerned about what happened, got out of his car to see the young man run off. Not able to get a good description he turned his attention to Jack to see if he was ok. Jack got the brunt of the impact. Trying to get up he felt dizzy, and his vision was blurry. “Kid are you ok?” The driver now knelling in front of Jack assessing the damage. “My head hurts, and I feel dizzy.” Jack replied. He looked around for his school bag, and then again attempted to stand up. Instantly falling back down to a sitting position. Jack realized he was not doing well. “Hang on kid, looks like you hit you head rather good. Just sit here and relax. I already called 911, help should be here soon. You got a pretty nasty cut there.” Jack can now feel something warm running down his face. He raised his hand to feel the cause of this warmth. When he looked at his hand, he could see the blood. A young woman came over from the nearby dinner to help and brought over a towel to place on his head. “Here’s something for you until medics arrive.” Jack thought she had a nice voice. More soothing than then the gentleman who helped him out. Jack was thankful he was not alone. “What’s your name Hun? Can I call your mom or dad for you?” The woman went to grab her phone.

“My names Jack, and my mom should be home you can call her.” As Jack gave her the number to call, the first gentleman came back with Jack’s bag.

“Is this your bag son?”

“Sure is, thank you so much. I have my history report in there. I’d hate to start that over again.” Jack smiled as he took back his bag. The medics showed up along with the police. Everyone on the scene was questioned and they got Jack into the ambulance. “Mom, I’m doing fine these people have been nice to me and I’m being taken to the hospital. Here’s one of the medics, he can tell you where we are headed.” Jack hands over the phone to the medic. He lets her know which hospital to meet them at.

At the hospital Jack got all checked out and received a clean bill of health. The cut did not require any stitches, and Jack was showing no signs of a concussion. Unfortunately, his mom did not make it to the hospital for almost two hours. When she got to his room she ran in slightly out of breath as if she has been running. “Baby, I am so sorry to keep you waiting. I think the van has finally kicked the bucket and was trying to find way here.” His mom grabbed him and gave him the biggest hug. “How’s your head? Are you ok? What exactly happened?” The barrage of questions coming from the concerned mother, Jack didn’t know where to start. “Mom I’m better know. My head still hurts, but they say I should be fine. I don’t know what happened exactly, I don’t know who I ran into and they didn’t stick around to care about me.” Jack’s mom sat there listening to every word, as if she hadn’t seen him for days. “I was rushing home to try out the new game, I guess I wasn’t paying attention all that well. When this guy crashed into me, and I hit my head as I came crashing to the pavement. Everyone else that saw what happened was so nice and called for help and took care of me. I was lucky mom, I really was.”

“I’m so glad to see you are doing better.” She gave Jack another hug when the doctor came in with the discharge papers.

“Your son is incredibly lucky, ma’am. There’s no sign of a concussion and it seems he escaped with only some minor scraps and a little cut on his head.” She was very relived to hear the good news form the doctor. “You two are free to go when ever. Did you have a ride home available?”

“Not really, I had walked over here as fast as I could. We live closer to the school, than we do this hospital.”

“If you’d like I can have one of the nurses call you a cab.”

“That’s very sweet, but I don’t have any money left and I don’t get paid for another two days.”

“Let me see what we can do for you. Even though he seems to be ok, I want Jack here to stay off his feet as much as possible. At least for the rest of today.” The doctor left, as he turned to leave the room tears began to slide down her cheek. “I’m sorry mama.” Jack said quietly.

“It’s not your fault baby, everything will be ok. I’m glad your little accident wasn’t worse than it was.”

“Can’t daddy help us out?”

“Oh child, your father hasn’t sent a cent of help for over three years. He is either unable or unwilling to help us.” The two of them sat there holding each other. Both glad Jack is doing well. A nurse came in to talk to his mom.

“Ma’am, the doctor informed me of your situation. We have a medical van that is getting ready to leave. If you wish the driver is more than willing to give you and your son a lift home.”

“Thank you! That’s truly kind of you.”

Jack was smiling again, as he got a lift in what he thought was a fancy wheelchair. The nurse escorted the two of them to the van so they could get a ride home. Once they got home Jack grabbed his bag, as much as he wanted to play the game it was getting late now, and he had some homework he had to get done. The game would have to wait. When he opened the bag up, he was surprised to find that his schoolwork was not in it. It was filled with cash, a whole lot of cash. There was also a black book. Inside looked like handwritten notes with strange names and numbers. Some of the names looked like they could be team names like Bucks, and Chiefs. These two names appeared often.

“MAMA!!!” he screamed excitedly. “MAMA COME LOOK AT WHAT IS IN THIS BAG!!” She ran to his room to see what was going on.

“Baby, why on earth are you…” before she could finish her sentence Jack had dump the contents of this bag on his bed. Just bundles of $100 bills. “Where on earth did all that money come from?”

“He must have grabbed my bag instead. I never noticed we had similar bags until I got home. He left in such a hurry he must not have noticed either.”

She walked over to the bed and started counting the bundles. She was curious to see how much was in that bag. “There’s at least $20,000 dollars here.”

“Mama, are we rich now?” Jack smiled, thinking of being able to buy all the latest in gaming gear. His mom did not know what to do. She knew this money was not theirs. She too was caught up in dreams of paying off some debt, getting a new vehicle. They could finally have a little financial freedom.

What would you do if you found a bag containing $20,000? Would you take it? Or would you turn it in? For some of us a find like this is like buying that winning lotto ticket. We know what we want to do with it, and we also know it may never happen.