Horse Blinders

I stepped out of my apartment with $10 in my bank account and spotted a $100 bill at my neighbor's doorstep

One afternoon in the dead of summer, I stepped out of my apartment with $10 in my bank account and spotted a $100 bill at my neighbor's doorstep. The bill was partly tucked away under the welcome rug as if someone had carefully placed it there. I stood still, stared down at the bill, and then looked around to ensure there were no security cameras. I did not worry about a person catching me in the act because no one stepped out of West Houston apartments in the middle of the afternoon. The few that got out made a beeline for their automobiles while worrying about how scalding hot the seats would be, unaware of everything else around them. The existence of other people went unnoticed until something strange happened, such as when a man walked into my apartment thinking it was his. I couldn't even blame him since it almost happened to me several times. 

My neighbors were a Middle Eastern family with two teenage kids. We had exchanged glances and maybe smiled once or twice. The afternoon air was still, and the back of my neck tingled with anticipation of some action on my part. I thought about the family- they too had probably moved in search of better fortunes and ended up in Houston. My better angels prevailed, as they often disappointingly do, sometimes against my will. I knocked on my neighbor's door. One of the kids, a cherubic boy in his mid-teens, opened the door. I pointed at the bill sticking out and asked him if someone had dropped it.

"Oh, it's fake", he replied without even looking down

I stood there taking in the boy's words, and he felt the need to repeat it, "It's fake; I just put it there to see if someone would take it."

I said okay and started my walk to my car, enraged at this cruel joke, but the boy did not know any better I told myself. 

Days went by, and I was reminded of the $100 bill every time I got out of the apartment and caught sight of the welcome rug by the opposite door. One afternoon, I was walking to my car, this time with my girlfriend, and I spotted a $100 bill on the paved ground. I walked past it without breaking stride, having decided not to fall for that joke again. My girlfriend, who was walking right behind me, called out and told me what she had found. I told her the note was fake. Some kind of Monopoly currency. She asked me how I knew that, and I told her what had transpired with the teenager next door. She still held onto the bill and, got into the car and started googling. Moments later, she turned to me and said, "It's real." 

I did not express disappointment or joy. I felt poorer than I did before, although I am not sure how that was possible. It was just another disappointment in a long line of disappointing events that year. A biblical sermon that my grandmother oft repeated throughout my childhood came to my mind, "For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away."

MC Escher engraving