Me: (opening the front door for Hank exiting the elevator) Home again, Home again. Jiggity-Jig.
Hank: Mom, you will never guess what just happened!
Me: I am sure I won’t. Tell me everything from the beginning.
Hank: So I’m walking home down Filipe’s (the owner of our favorite local tasca (diner) street and there in front of me on the sidewalk is €20.
Hank: True story. So I looked around and there was no one in front of me, so I asked the people around if it someone had dropped €20, because there is also construction so I thought like someone working above lost it and it had fell out of their wallet, but they were all gone for the day and I went and asked the man inside, you know, there is like that photo shop, but he said it wasn’t his and I offered to leave it with him in case someone came back looking for it and then one of the first men I spoke first on the street just said, “Look, it’s yours now. This must be your lucky day. Spend it on something nice.”
Me: And what did you say?
Hank: I said, “Thank you,” and took my backpack off and got out my wallet. I took my time so incase the person who dropped it came back, you know? Then I put my wallet in my pocket and waved and left.
Hank: Can you believe it?!
Me: It is your lucky day for sure, but you know what they say, “you make your luck.”
Hank: I don’t know what I’m going to send €20 on. It is a lot of money! And it was just my birthday. (shaking his head in disbelief)
Me: Regardless, thank you for taking the time to try and find the person who lost the money. This was the first moment in your life when, totally on your own, you validated the honesty, generosity and integrity I know is within you.
Hank: I couldn’t believe it, mom. I stopped and just stood over the nota (bill) for-like-ever because I was like, is this some kind of experiment or test to see what kids will do if they find €20, you know? I kept expecting someone to come out and say, “It is mine and I bet my friend €20 that you would take the money and walk away, but you didn’t,” and then take the bill back and we’d all laugh and I’d go home and that would have also been fine, you know? But, like, this is so much better. (shaking his head) I guess I’m in shock.
Me: Just last week a total stranger paid for Kelly, Bryan, Aida and Connor’s (family friends) dinner at a restaurant and told the waitress it was because they were a beautiful family and she wanted to spread some good in the world right now. Maybe someone left it on purpose to bring luck and fortune into someone’s day.
Hank: Seriously? I don’t believe it. A dinner? Dinner is expensive in America at a restaurant.
Me: I am far too busy and important to lie.
Me: Congratulations, buddy, you’re now up €20. Please take the money out of your wallet and put it in your bank in your room until you know exactly what you’d like to invest that money into: savings or something you’d enjoy or books or some gadget, whatever. I don’t want you taking the €20 you stumbled into to school and then YOU accidentally losing it.
Hank: Good idea. (laughing, walking to his room, marveling at his new found fortune)
