A Dickens of a Day*
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.
I just found 3 one hundred dollar bills. I had been walking on my usual trip around the block and there the money was just lying on the ground. So I picked up the three bills. My inner voice said, “Do all the good you can and make as little fuss about it as possible.” But did I want to be that altruistic?
I met up with my friends Ronald, Dave, and Jude and asked them what I should do with the money. Ronald was quick to reply, “Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes. Go out and get that new gaming system you’ve been chatting about for the past three months.”
I realized To the young heart everything is fun.
Dave was more down to earth, “We forge the chains we wear in life. A loving heart is the truest wisdom. You should donate the money to a needy cause. You’ll feel much better.”
Jude had a different idea, “Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities. Why not put that money into that new company Apple. My dad says that the personal computer is going to be a big thing in the future. I’m sure he would be willing to invest it for you.”
Clearly, I needed to do something with the money. Everybody said so. Far be it from me to assert that what everybody says must be true. Everybody is, often, as likely to be wrong as right. So I decided to think a little more.
When I got home I put the money on the desk in the hall under my hat and sat out on the back porch thinking about what I should do. Three hundred dollars at that time was a lot of money. New thoughts and hopes were whirling through my mind, and all the colours of my life were changing.” Or so I had hoped.
What I hadn’t counted on was the housecleaning crew, who happened to be working in the house that day.
I had decided that the best thing to do would be to give the money to my parents and let them hold it for me until I made my decision. When I got to the hall the cleaning crew had already left and my hat was nowhere to be found. Always suspect everybody. That’s the maxim to go through life with.
There are very few moments in a man’s existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat.
There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth. This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in. To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached is not in my nature. So I tried to explain to my parents about the money. I said, “Ask no questions, and you’ll be told no lies.” and then told them what had occurred. I don’t think that they believed me. They trusted the house cleaners and they didn’t ask any questions.
I was upset and started to cry. I remembered what my mother once told me. “We need never be ashamed of our tears,” so I didn’t even apologize even if they thought I was lying.
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. And that is exactly what my parents did. They took me out for dinner that night and let me order my favorite topping on my pizza.
Thinking back on that day I said to myself, “That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been.” If I only could have spent that $300.00.
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*Author’s note: The story prompts to choose from for this piece were two quotes from Charles Dickens. I chose them both and added a few more within the piece. Everything written in italics is a quote from Charles Dickens. There are 19 of them.
