The Wallet(Ed DeRousse) The Wallet

I was off work the other day, so my wife sent me on a “honey do” mission. She called to tell me she was going to get home late from work. We had planned to go together to pick up the new fancy microwave we ordered a couple weeks earlier, from Sears, but she was going to get home too late for us to go together. I was just as anxious as her to bring that baby home. I really had no legitimate excuse to wait until the next day, so I told her I would pick it up.

I hung up the phone, immediately gathered up my car keys, drove to the appliance store, went directly to the customer service counter, and told the lady I was there to pick up my fancy new microwave. She told me how much I owed. I reached for my billfold. ….My heart sank!!

I stepped away from the counter to think. Where was it? I knew I had it when I got coffee that morning at Hardees. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t remember putting it in its usual kitchen counter resting place, after my return from the morning coffee. The only thing I could think of was that I left it at Hardees. I decided to drive there to do some backtracking.

By the time I got back to the restaurant, it would be a couple hours later than when I had breakfast coffee. I was sure this was a futile endeavor. If I did leave it there, I did not have much confidence that I would get it back.

My billfold had a business card in it along with my contact information. No one had called me yet. I didn’t have much money in it, but I did have a couple of credit cards to be concerned about. One of them I planned to use for the microwave.

I asked the manager if anyone had turned in a wallet. He assured me that no one had, but he would let me know if someone did later. “Fat chance of that happening”, I thought. I turned around and headed for the exit.

All I could do now was to get back in my car and go home. So I left the building wondering what I was going to do about my situation.

As I opened the restaurant’s door to the parking lot, I saw a dark blob on the ground that could have passed for a billfold. I remembered that I parked my car in the general area of that blob.

All I could see at that time was that dark spot. My mind was racing with the possibility that the spot really belonged to me. “Could that really be my wallet and if it is, how could I have missed it when I entered Hardees a few minutes ago? I had to walk over it. And how many people and cars passed over that spot since I left there this morning?”

My brain was telling my eyes to focus harder.
“Hallelujah! I think it really is my wallet!!”

Unfortunately, my eyes and brain finally took in the entire picture. They were now seeing something extremely disturbing. A giant of a man had just scooped up that billfold. He opened it up and I saw him rifle through it.

“O my!!” I thought. “He’s huge!”

I took a quick inventory of his stature and judged him to be 6’ 8” and 350lbs. I imagined him to be a defensive end for the St. Louis Rams.

I fretted. “What am I gonna’ do now? He just picked up my wallet.”

I am not a confrontational person, but I was sure that defensive end guy had my wallet. Right or wrong, perhaps because of my own diminutive stature (I’m 5’6” , 150 lbs), I get defensive about big men like that. I assume they are all aggressive and like to express their authority over all the smaller people.

He had my wallet and I had to suck it up and get it from him somehow.

I raised my head so I could look him in the eyes. I walked confidently, but not confrontationally, straight toward him. The closer I got to him the more I had to crane my neck. I could tell he knew I was approaching him. We both knew we were going to enter each other’s personal space.

The big man could tell that I was looking at the wallet he held in his hand. The moment of truth had arrived, but I was not yet sure what I was going to do if he would not want to talk about the wallet or give it back.

Because of my frame of mind, I don’t think I prepared myself for what happened next.

The big man in a quiet almost soothing voice said, “This must be yours? You look like the picture on the license. I bet you were fretting about this? I know I would be.” He handed it to me. I thanked him and walked on in to Hardees.

What a nice fellow!

God never misses an opportunity to teach. I believed that confrontation was about to happen. That big guy obviously had no thought about creating a problem. He just wanted to do the right thing. I was the judgmental one.

I got back in my car, thought about God’s lesson, headed back to Sears, and picked up the microwave.

When my wife got home, I had the microwave already hooked up and was cooking our supper in it. I told her about my experience at Sears and at Hardees.

She looked at me and said “Why do you do that?”

What could I say?

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