integrity
No one was watching
no one would know
the fat wad of folded bills was comprised of twenties, fifties and hundreds
she reached down and picked it up
“I’ll be able to pay the rent on time this month!” she thought to herself as she placed the wad in her purse and hurried on to her second job waitressing at the diner. Her salary as a schoolteacher didn’t cover all the bills and Jimmy was a teenager now with an appetite like a horse. Sometimes being a single mom was just too much.
As she poured coffee for a customer at the counter she heard them talking.
“We lost it! All that hard work and now it’s all gone. Fred was on his way to the bank to deposit the cash, he was walking down main street, it must have fallen out somewhere.”
“Oh, and he was doing so well. I remember when he first came to the shelter. How long has he been clean?”
“Four years. This will devastate him.”
The schoolteacher reached into her purse and placed the wad of bills on the table.
“I found this walking down main street on my way here earlier this afternoon.”