Jimmy had always thought it was important to do the right thing.
He believed that good things would always come back to reward anybody who did good works. He had always been an active member of his community, helping out at the church with anything required of him. His work in the youth hostel paid very little but he enjoyed what he did. After all, he was helping people.
The day he found the wallet he was working in the soup kitchen. He had dumped scraps in one of the bins out back and was walking back in, when he kicked something; a small, pink leather wallet. It could have been laying unnoticed for an age, out of the weather and half covered with leaves.
Jimmy opened it up and found it contained dozens of shopping receipts, a cosmetic representative’s business card and two dollars. The name on the card was Margaret Squires. He knew no one with that name, but recognised the nearby town from the printed address. If he was going to return it, and of course he would return it, he would have to use his car; but not before the weekend.
The following Saturday he took the cover off his car, it hadn’t been run for a while. Petrol was expensive and walking was fine; it usually served his needs. He topped up with a minimum of petrol and took off.
It should have been a twenty minute run but heavy downpour slowed the traffic to a crawl. It had just started to pick up when a heavy-laden truck skidded noisily, finally running into the back of him. His own car was pushed into the vehicle in front and within minutes all three drivers and several witnesses were all sheltering in a tiny bus shelter swapping insurance details.
All three vehicles had been pushed off the road, but eventually they all moved off back into the traffic. Jimmy’s car was running rough and finally stopped, creating a further traffic jam. He called a road assistance service to come out and assess his vehicle. This resulted in it being towed to a local garage for repair.
It was now getting dark but Jimmy knew there was no turning back. In order to do the right thing for the owner of the wallet he needed to bus or walk the rest of the way and figure out how he would get home later. He found and studied a timetable, but figured he would be better off just walking the final leg. It would only take around fifteen minutes.
In the meantime the rain had eased but storm clouds were gathering in the darkening sky. As he entered the town the rain grew heavier. He had previously looked up the location of the street but had to look again at the number. He sheltered in a shop doorway and took out the card. It wasn’t far now.
When he arrived at the house it was in darkness. Maybe the people there had turned in already, it was getting late. He could see a car at the side of the house, so he knocked at the door and waited. The rain was bucketing down and he stood close to the door for what little protection it gave him. After a couple of minutes he knocked again, this time louder.
A light finally came on and the door opened to show a sleepy-eyed woman in a dressing gown. “Who are you?” she snapped.
Jimmy stood with his jaw dropped. “You’re Maggie Worthington,” he blurted.
She frowned. “Not any more I’m not.”
“Don’t you recognise me? I’m Jimmy Jarvis. We… we used to go out together, you remember, when we were at school.”
“Oh! God! Yes, of course I remember. I broke up with you. What are you doing here?”
“Well, I came to return your wallet.” He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to her. “I did my best to keep it dry. It is yours, isn’t it?”
She opened it saying “Yes. I lost it ages ago, but knew it hardly had anything in it so I wasn’t bothered about it.” She looked up. “Two dollars, is that all?”
“Well, yes, but…”
“Let me get this straight,” she interrupted. “You came all this way in the pouring rain to wake me up to return a wallet with only two dollars in it; and to someone you thought was an absolute stranger?”
“Well, yes, it was the right thing to…”
“No wonder I dumped you,” she shouted, and slammed the door.