I Would have if I Could have
This story is only part fantasy. It is a story about being a hero if only I could have been. But, I didn’t get the chance to be, and that’s such a shame.
The story began on a perfectly normal day. I had driven my car into town and parked in a pay-park area in front of the car that was already there. I collected my things and got out of my car to buy a ticket from the parking machine. I put in the money and stepped back to retrieve the ticket. At that moment there was a commotion to my right that I detected from the corner of my eye. It was a man with a stick, and he was running towards me. I thought I was under attack, but before I could react he bounced off me and came to a halt a few metres away.
He threw his arms in the air, including the stick and he absolutely SCREAMED at the top of his voice: DIOS ME! NO! NO! NO! Everyone on the street froze. Two meter maids who were walking towards him went quickly up to him and asked: “What’s the matter?” He kept repeating : “No! No! No! It cannot be!” Again the ladies asked “What cannot be?” He replied that he had left a bag containing money on the bonnet of his car and someone had taken it.
Poor man. He had evidently had one of those Senior Moments. Reconstructing what had happened, it seems that he had got out of his car and placed the bag with money on the bonnet of his car, and then walked the twelve steps to the machine and bought a ticket for the car. He then placed the ticket on the inside, turned to the right and simply walked away without the bag. At some point he realised that he did not have it, and in spite of the fact that he needed a cane to walk, he had come running, hoping against hope that the bag would still have been there.
I had arrived and parked in front of him but there was no bag at that time. This is where my fantasy comes into the picture, together with a question: What would I have done had I come face to face with a bag of money that was just sitting out in public?
I have thought about this over and over again, but my first thought still prevails: I would have made certain that the money found its way back to its lawful owner. I would have taken the bag from the bonnet of the car and put it in my car. Then I would have simply sat to await his return. In the meantime I would have called the town police and asked that officers came to the scene.
If only that could have been the way it played out. If you could have witnessed that man’s agony you would have wanted to be the one to have been able to say, “Here it is! Calm yourself.” He was a mature man, and I have no idea how much was in his bag, but evidently he considered it an absolute disaster that he had lost it.
Of course he was given the advice to immediately report it to the police. My only hope is that in doing so he would have found that some person had made the trip to the police station to turn the money in.
What disturbs me most about this is that if he got his money back we would have celebrated that fact as a major event because we would expect that whomever found it would keep it.
Honesty really is the best policy. If that money was simply spent by the finder, that would have possibly been the end of it. A guilty conscience might have been the price. However, had the money been returned to its owner, that deed would have been a solid part of the finder’s reputation for the rest of his life. It would also be a matter of personal pride, and that would be Priceless!
That is something to think about so that we will be ready when fate makes it our turn to make the right decision.
Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael
This story is only part fantasy. It is a story about being a hero if only I could have been. But, I didn’t get the chance to be, and that’s such a shame.
The story began on a perfectly normal day. I had driven my car into town and parked in a pay-park area in front of the car that was already there. I collected my things and got out of my car to buy a ticket from the parking machine. I put in the money and stepped back to retrieve the ticket. At that moment there was a commotion to my right that I detected from the corner of my eye. It was a man with a stick, and he was running towards me. I thought I was under attack, but before I could react he bounced off me and came to a halt a few metres away.
He threw his arms in the air, including the stick and he absolutely SCREAMED at the top of his voice: DIOS ME! NO! NO! NO! Everyone on the street froze. Two meter maids who were walking towards him went quickly up to him and asked: “What’s the matter?” He kept repeating : “No! No! No! It cannot be!” Again the ladies asked “What cannot be?” He replied that he had left a bag containing money on the bonnet of his car and someone had taken it.
Poor man. He had evidently had one of those Senior Moments. Reconstructing what had happened, it seems that he had got out of his car and placed the bag with money on the bonnet of his car, and then walked the twelve steps to the machine and bought a ticket for the car. He then placed the ticket on the inside, turned to the right and simply walked away without the bag. At some point he realised that he did not have it, and in spite of the fact that he needed a cane to walk, he had come running, hoping against hope that the bag would still have been there.
I had arrived and parked in front of him but there was no bag at that time. This is where my fantasy comes into the picture, together with a question: What would I have done had I come face to face with a bag of money that was just sitting out in public?
I have thought about this over and over again, but my first thought still prevails: I would have made certain that the money found its way back to its lawful owner. I would have taken the bag from the bonnet of the car and put it in my car. Then I would have simply sat to await his return. In the meantime I would have called the town police and asked that officers came to the scene.
If only that could have been the way it played out. If you could have witnessed that man’s agony you would have wanted to be the one to have been able to say, “Here it is! Calm yourself.” He was a mature man, and I have no idea how much was in his bag, but evidently he considered it an absolute disaster that he had lost it.
Of course he was given the advice to immediately report it to the police. My only hope is that in doing so he would have found that some person had made the trip to the police station to turn the money in.
What disturbs me most about this is that if he got his money back we would have celebrated that fact as a major event because we would expect that whomever found it would keep it.
Honesty really is the best policy. If that money was simply spent by the finder, that would have possibly been the end of it. A guilty conscience might have been the price. However, had the money been returned to its owner, that deed would have been a solid part of the finder’s reputation for the rest of his life. It would also be a matter of personal pride, and that would be Priceless!
That is something to think about so that we will be ready when fate makes it our turn to make the right decision.
Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael
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