Page 21 - ARRS #582 - The Mystery of the Lost Wallet

Another Random Road Story #582

Surely he couldn’t think… And what else WAS there to find? Keys? A
baggie of something? MORE money?
He finished looking through his wallet, never once smiling, At last he
looked up at me with his clean but hungover careworn face, seemingly full of
disappointment.
He handed me one of the $50 bills and said simply, “Thanks.”
I took the $50 and told him I was glad to have helped – losing money is
bad enough but driver’s license and bank cards are hard to replace.
A funny look came across his face, not a relieved look either. I felt
compelled to remind him that I didn’t keep a thing, and if he wanted to go
back and look for himself he could find the spot on the westbound loop just
past the O-54 overpass – just look for the blank spot in the cattails.
He didn’t say another word, just turned and headed for his front door.
Driving away from the house on the hill I thought that he was seriously
ungrateful – hangover or not. He must have lost something really important.
Maybe he thought I rooked him by searching myself instead of taking him.
That idea turned my stomach, after I’d gone out of my way for the guy – for
only $50 which is just what his fare would have been, not counting all my
extra deadhead miles, OR my search-and-rescue mission.
I noticed my phone hadn’t rung once during this whole escapade,
reminding me that I’m no JD Rockefeller and NACC is not yet Standard Oil.
I let out a string of expletives that would have made a sailor proud.
And then the phone rang.
I put on my professional-yet-friendly voice and answered it casually:
“Not Another Cab Company. Where would you like to go today?”

MD

–-You Just Got Passed By a Girl in a Freightliner