Found money

3

It was still dark when Amy woke. The drapes were drawn, but lights from the parking lot made them glow around the edges, the room’s only illumination. Her eyes adjusted slowly. The twin bed beside hers was empty, already made. The usual morning noises emerged from the kitchen. Gram was always the first to rise, earlier and earlier with each passing year. Amy checked her alarm clock on the nightstand. Five-sixteen A.M.

She’s probably fixing lunch by now.

Amy lay still, staring at the ceiling. She had done the right thing, she knew, by telling her. Gram would have wormed it out of her eventually. Amy had an incredibly expressive face, one that Gram had learned to read with ease. Truthfully, Amy wanted to tell her. She needed help with this one. Gram was old-fashioned, but few things were more reliable than old-fashioned common sense.

Amy slipped on her flannel robe and shuffled toward the kitchen, following the aroma of fresh strong coffee.

“Morning, dear,” said Gram. She was already dressed. Overdressed, by her own historical standards. For almost half a century, Gram had lived in blue jeans in the winter, Bermuda shorts in the summer. Lately, she’d taken to pressed slacks and silk blouses, even for routine trips to the grocery store. Amy suspected a man was in the picture, though Gram vehemently denied it.

“Morning,” said Amy. She pulled up a chair at the dining room table. Gram brought her a cup, no cream and two sugars, the way she liked it.

“I’ve made a decision,” she said, taking the seat across from Amy. “We’ll keep the money, right here.”

“I thought you said you wanted to sleep on it, and that we’d discuss it in the morning.”

“That’s right.”

“Well, this is hardly a discussion. You just announced a decision.”

“Trust me, darling. Your grandmother knows best on these things.”

The coffee was suddenly bitter. Amy measured her words, but there was resentment in her tone. “That’s exactly what you said when you talked me into quitting astronomy for this computer job.”

“And that has worked out beautifully. The law firm loves you so much they’re willing to help send you to law school.”

“It’s not the law firm that loves me. It’s Marilyn Gaslow. And the only reason she got the firm to cough up this partial scholarship is because she and Mom were old friends.”

“Don’t be cynical, Amy. Be realistic. With a degree in astronomy you would have been lucky to get a job teaching high school. You’ll earn ten times more as a lawyer.”

“Sure. And with spiked heels and a G-string I could make fifty times more than-”

“Stop,” said Gram, covering her ears. “Don’t be talking like that.”

“I’m kidding, okay? Just making a point.”

“There’s no point in sass.” Gram went to the kitchen and refilled her coffee cup.

Amy sighed, backing down, as usual. “I’m sorry, all right? It’s not every day a box full of money comes in an unmarked package. I’d just like to talk it out.”

Gram returned to her chair, then looked across the table, eye to eye. “What do you think we should do with it?”

“I don’t know. Should we call the police?”

“What for? No crime has been committed.”

“None that we know of, you mean.”

“Amy, I’m surprised at you. How did you get so negative? Something good happens, and you immediately figure it has to be connected to something bad.”

“I’m just considering all the possibilities. I’m assuming we don’t have any rich relatives you’ve forgotten to tell me about.”

Gram laughed. “Honey, in our family tree, not even the leaves are green.”

“None of your friends have this kind of money to give away, do they?”

“You know the answer to that.”

“So, if this is a gift, it came from someone we don’t know, someone who’s not even related to us.”

“It could happen. Things like that do happen.”

“When?”

“All the time.”

“Name one.”

“I can’t think of one, but it happens. Somebody you met, somewhere along the line. You’re a sweet person, Amy. Maybe some rich old man had a crush on you and you didn’t even know it.”

Amy shook her head. “This is just too strange. We should call the police.”

“For what? We’ll never see it again.”

“If nobody claims it, I would think the police will give it back to us.”

“That’s not the way it works,” said Gram. “A few years ago, I read in the newspaper about a minister who found over a million dollars in a suitcase on the side of the road. He turned it in to the police, thinking that if nobody claimed it, the cops would give it back to him, since he was the guy who found it. Sure enough, nobody claimed it. But you know what? The police said it was drug money, and they confiscated it under these drug laws they have now. They kept every penny of it. That’s what will happen to us.”

“I’m just worried. If it were just the two of us, maybe I’d be braver about this. But with Taylor living here, I’d feel better if we had a little protection.”

“Protection from what?”

“Well, maybe it is drug money. Someone could have sent it to me by mistake, thinking I’m part of their distribution chain or something.”

“That’s preposterous.”

“Oh, and some rich old man with the hots for me is perfectly logical.”

“Look,” said Gram, “I don’t know who sent you this or why. All I know is that it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. So we keep the money, and we wait a couple weeks. Don’t spend any of it, at least for a little while. Maybe in a few days a letter will come in the mail from someone that explains everything.”

“Maybe the Mafia will come pounding on our door.”

“Maybe. That’s why we’re keeping the money right here in our apartment.”

“That’s crazy, Gram. We should at least put it in a safe deposit box for safekeeping.”

“Bad idea. Don’t you watch the news? The quickest way to get shot in a robbery is not to have any money on you. It makes robbers very angry.”

“What does that have to do with this?”

“Let’s say it was criminals who sent you this money by mistake. Let’s say they come looking for it. We tell them we don’t have it. They think we’re lying. They go berserk. Somebody gets hurt.”

“But if the money is here, then what?”

“We just give it back to them. They leave happy, and we go on living the way we’ve always lived. The chances of anything bad like that happening are probably zilch. But in the worst-case scenario, I don’t want any angry thugs accusing me of playing games. It’s best if we can just hand over the money right on the spot and be done with it.”

Amy finished her coffee. She looked away nervously, then back. “I don’t know.”

“There’s no downside, Amy. If it’s a gift, we’re rich. If some creeps come to claim it, we just give it back. Just wait a couple weeks, that’s all.” Gram leaned forward and touched her granddaughter’s hand. “And if things work out the way I think they will, you can go back to grad school.”

“You certainly know how to push a girl’s buttons.”

“So, you’re with me on this?”

Amy smiled with her eyes, peering over her cup. “Where do you want to stash our loot?”

“It’s already in the perfect hiding spot. The freezer.”

“The freezer?”

Gram smirked. “Where else would a crazy old woman keep a box of cold hard cash?”