Inside was a folded piece of paper, and underneath it was something I wasn’t expecting.
A check for $5,000, made out to me.I read the amount three times because I thought I was reading it wrong. But no, there it was. Five thousand dollars.
The note was short but written with care.
“Dear Ross,
Thank you for your kindness to my daughter, Emily. You have no idea how much you helped her that night. She made it home safe because of you. This is a small token of our gratitude. We would also love to have you over for lunch this Sunday if you’re willing. Please come. We’d like to thank you properly.”
There was an address written underneath, on the other side of town.
I just stood there holding the check, my hands starting to shake. Mr. Jenkins raised his eyebrows like he was waiting for some kind of explanation, but I couldn’t find any words. My brain couldn’t catch up to what I was seeing.
“Everything okay?” he finally asked.
“I… I don’t know,” I managed to say. “I need to go home.”
He nodded and didn’t ask any more questions.
I drove home with the envelope sitting in the passenger seat like it might disappear if I looked away. When I pulled into our driveway, Lydia was in the kitchen making sandwiches for the kids’ lunches. She looked up when I came in, and I guess something in my face worried her because she put down the knife right away.
“Ross, what’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I handed her the envelope without saying anything. She pulled out the check, looked at it, and her hand flew up to cover her mouth.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “Ross, what is this? Where did this come from?”
So I told her everything. About the woman and her sleeping boy, the four dollars, and about how she’d looked so desperate and tired. Lydia read the note twice, then set it down on the counter and looked at me with tears in her eyes.
“Ross, you have to go on Sunday,” she said firmly. “And honey, I need you to hear me. I’m so proud of you. What you did for that woman, not expecting anything back, just being decent when she needed it most… that’s who you are. That’s the man I married.”
“I didn’t do it for this, Lydia. I didn’t want anything back.”
“I know you didn’t,” she said, pulling me into a hug. “That’s exactly why you deserve it.”
***