Falling from the Sky

I had been hoping for a lump sum to magically appear in my life. Daydreaming about winning the lottery or spotting a pile of cash on the side of the road or even earning a huge bonus at work. My husband, Anthony and I were looking to buy a house. Not just buy a house, build a house. As a teenager, I worked at a hotel. I remember a family of four; a husband, wife and their son and daughter aged around 6 and 9. I always saw them when they came down for the continental breakfast. Eventually I noticed that they had been there for quite a long time. I asked one of the other staff members why they were there so long. Were they homeless? My coworker informed me that they were staying in the hotel while they had their house built. Back then, my first thought was “they must be rich”! It was not until a decade later that a coworker of mine posted on social media that she and her significant other were getting a house built. As I watched their home progress from an empty lot of dirt to a big, beautiful 2-story home, I was intrigued with the idea of having a house built from the ground up. I thought to myself, I know they are not rich! It was then that I set my sights on having my own home built one day.

We have been focused on building for a couple of months now. With buying/building a home, money is needed; lots of it! We managed to save a considerable amount, but we were still short $20,000. We increased the frequency we played the lottery, took on odd-end jobs, and cut back on unnecessary purchases. Due to COVID-19, we had previously cancelled a flight for vacation. The points that we accrued because of the cancelled flight were approaching their expiration date. So, despite our efforts to save money, we did not want $600 worth of flights to go down the drain. Therefore, we were forced to take a trip! Sure, the plane tickets were covered but a trip also comes with the expense of a hotel, food, activities, transportation, etc. We decided it was worth it and decided to saddle up and take a trip to Phoenix, Arizona!

As we boarded our flight, I noticed a young woman in her 20s in the emergency row writing in a little black notebook. I didn’t think twice about it as we continued on to our preferred seating on the right side of the plane (when facing front) right behind the middle wing. We prepared for takeoff and I fell into a deep stupor just after the wheels lifted off the ground. I was awakened by the sound of the wheels touching the ground again at the end of our flight. Wow! I slept the entire time! As we waited for the other passengers to deplane, we noticed a commotion at the emergency row. Apparently, the young woman I noticed with the small, black notebook tripped or slipped because there was a huge fuss over her with many asking if she was alright. She was fine and proceeded with her exit from the plane. We like to wait until all other passengers are gone before we make our way off any plane. My husband and I are slow walkers as we like to observe the scenery, especially in a new town. We prefer to let everyone else go first so as to not hold up anyone that could possibly be on a strict timeframe.

As we walked through the aisles to get to the front, Anthony noticed the little black notebook that the young woman was writing in was on the floor slightly under the seat in front of her. It must have fell out of her bag or she dropped it during her mishap! I scooped it up and let the flight attendant know that I found it. She asked if I could check to see if I saw the young woman was out at the gate. She was not so there was another airline staff member at the gate counter who we approached to turn in the notebook to be entered into the airline lost and found. The gate worker stated that most times those items are not retrieved, and they end up going to charity. She suggested we see if we could find the young woman at baggage claim. I agreed that we would try to locate her. As we walked the long walk from our gate, I kept my eyes peeled looking for this young woman. We arrived at baggage claim and I walked around the carousel in search of her while Anthony waited for our bags. She was nowhere to be found! I opened the notebook to see if there was any contact information and on the first page was a note:

“Whomever finds this, it is your lucky day,

You think I lost this notebook; you say?

As I faked an accident, I let this slip,

In hopes that someone would benefit from this tip.

Write your name on this money order now,

You are $20,000 richer, wow!

No seriously, this money has fallen from the sky,

Use it how you please but thank the guy!

Upstairs that is!”

I flipped through the notebook and in the last flap was a money order for $20,000. No name in the payee field. I stood there in shock and skepticism! Anthony came over with our luggage as I stood in the open baggage claim area with my mouth wide open.

“What’s wrong?”, he asked, confused.

I handed the money order and notebook to him and replied, “read this!”

After a few seconds, he let out a hearty laugh and shrieked, “is this real?”

“I don’t know but we’re going to find out”, I responded in a determined voice.

We got to our hotel room and called our local bank branch and explained the situation. We wanted to know if we mobile deposit the money order and it turns out to be fake, what penalties would we face. The branch manager assured us that money orders are guaranteed. We remained skeptical but decided to take our changes and accept the blessing as it was and deposit it. We went on with our weekend trip because the funds would not be available until the next business day which was Monday.

Monday morning as my alarm went off at 6am for my regular day, I looked at my phone and noticed a text from my bank informing me that there was a deposit of $20,000. My eyes lit up instantly and I hopped out of bed and yelled to Anthony to get up now!

“The money cleared! The money cleared! It’s real! We’re going to get our house!”, I screamed as I began jumping up and down.

He sat up in bed and repeatedly said “WOW this unbelievable!”

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Seven months and four days later, Anthony turned the key in the lock and opened the door. As the children ran into the house excited to see their new rooms, my husband and I stood in silence before I finally spoke up.

“Our home”, I whispered.

We just closed on our new construction dream home and were in slight disbelief how it all occurred. How we went from penny-pinching trying to save to having money fall from the sky in a little black notebook to make our dreams come true.