Somebody Is Always Watching

“Ok, so what do we do with it?” 

Ah. So, that was our one million dollar question. Or, such was the case right now, the $20,000 question. 

“We should return it” Haley says, and I can just hear the rest of the group groan collectively. “Someone is clearly missing a lot of money!” She insists when she can gauge nobody is on her side. 

“Or, we keep it and each become $5,000 richer” Brad points out to her, gesturing to the four of us. We stood huddled under the big elm tree in our local park, where we had discovered the gift of a lifetime. Twenty thousand dollars, just sitting slumped against the tree in a tattered envelope. Who could be so careless as to leave such a vast sum of money around? 

“That’s wrong” Haley reminds him, but he laughs it off. 

“Come on, Haley. It’s a little suspicious don’t you think?” He asks her, a certain gleam in his eye. Judging by her facial expression she didn’t understand to what he was referring, so he continued. “Someone leaves an envelope with $20,000 in it, under a tree, in a park...” he trails off, looking to me to chime in. 

“What if someone was paying a hit man?” I ask mockingly, my eyes wide with fake fear. “Or maybe, this is some sort of trap set up by the police to catch thieves” I gasp. Oh, the horror! 

“Ha-ha very funny” Brad snaps, getting up from his spot in our circle. “Or you know, you kind of have a point” he points to me, and suddenly all eyes are on me. 

“There’s no point, I was joking” I defend myself, putting my hands up in surrender. “Someone definitely just lost their money, and hasn’t realized it yet” it was the most logical of explanations, of course. 

“I don’t know, I’m kind of with Brad on this one” Jamie pipes up. She had been silent since we found the money, clearly in some form of ethical debate in her head. “Nobody just leaves this kind of money lying around, in such an envelope no less” she picks it up, inspecting it further. There was no name, no address, no nothing. No way of finding out who lost it, and no way of finding out how to return it to them. 

“And we’re sure there’s nothing else around?” I ask, and everyone nods; we had looked around the tree countless times, but all that say was the mysterious envelope. 

“Can you imagine if it’s the drop site for a hit man?” Haley whispers, being whisked away in my story. “Or like, someone hired a private investigator?” The wheels in her mind are spinning now. 

“Don’t be ridiculous” I almost snap, but I manage to keep an even tone. “We should just turn it in to the police, and wash our hands of it” I say confidently. “It could be stolen, or somebody could really, really need it” I add to try and help my case. It doesn’t seem like it’s working, however. I look at all my friends, who are each lost in their own worlds, trying to come up with a solution to our find. 

I take a moment to look around the park; was there any truth to my jokes? Was this money criminal? Was it involved in some shady business dealing, or something worse? 

It’s past seven p.m so there aren’t many people around. It’s chilly, so I zip up my sweater, trying to survey the land. I note one small group of teens, a couple hundred feet away, all huddled together closely. 

“They’re definitely up to no good...” I mutter, changing my glance to the older gentleman that was seated on the bench. He sat, jacket zipped up tight, all the way to his neck, hat on, tilted down slightly, so I was unable to see his face. That seems suspicious... 

“Hey guys, get a load of him” I say, turning back around and gesturing over my shoulder. One at a time, each of my friends takes a turn trying to look casual whilst checking out the man. 

“He looks like he could be a hit man” Haley blurts out immediately after looking. “I mean, sitting alone at this hour?” 

“Yea, because sitting alone at seven p.m on a Sunday is a real crime” Brad snorts, and I have to agree with him. There’s nothing suspicious in what he’s doing, but considering the circumstances we found ourselves in, I think it warrants suspicion. 

“You know what I meant” Haley snapped right back at her boyfriend, who didn’t seem to bothered by her tone. “At any rate, can we make a decision on this quicker? I’m starting to get cold” as if to prove her point she shivers, zipping up her light hoodie all the way, pulling up her hood. 

“So it’s agreed then, we each take $5,000” Jamie speaks for all of us. Was I missing for the part of the conversation where we decided we were keeping it? 

“Slow your roll” I tell her, shaking my head. “Let’s just leave it here. I’ve got a bad feeling about this” I add, taking another look around. The teens are still huddled just like before, only this time, the man is gone. I feel unease creep into my mind, the stories I had made up of the possibilities of this money beginning to get to me. 

“Nothings going to happen if we take it” Brad tells me, brushing off my fear as simple paranoia. “I’m with Jamie; let’s split it. Haley?” He turns to his girlfriend, who I’m confident will just go along with whatever Brad says, like she always does. 

“Let’s just split it and get out of here” she says, just as I predict. I’m annoyed I’m the only one thinking clearly on this. Or maybe, I’m the only paranoid one. It didn’t matter; keeping the money was morally wrong; it wasn’t ours. 

“You guys can split it, I want no part of it” I tell them, waving them off. I can see this answer still satisfies them; more for us, I imagine they’re thinking. 

“Fine, have it your way, dude” Brad shrugs. “Let’s go back to my place and split it up there” he looks to Jamie and Haley for approval. When he gets it, looks at me, a smile on his face. “Let’s go” he gestures to the girls, who each, before turning to walk away, provide me with a look of sympathy. 

And just like that I’m alone, underneath the tree that started the debate that lasted our entire evening. In the end, I lost in more than one way. I was guilty of not returning the money to its rightful owner, and I missed out on a possible $5,000. 

I turn back to the bench the older gentleman was sitting at, and notice an object sitting there. I walk closer, looking around cautiously as I do, and quickly realize there’s a little black notebook sitting in the very middle of the bench. It did not look like it fell out of the man’s pocket. No, it looked like it was placed there. 

Walking at a faster pace now, my hands tremble above it as I decide whether or not this is something I want to read. It doesn’t matter; curiosity gets the better of me, and before I know it I’m seated on the bench, flipping through the book. 

Almost every page is full; every page that is, except the last one. It’s simply filled with names. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to them, no order; and they’re all written in the same ink, with what looked to be the same hand writing. 

“I see you must be the lucky one” the voice almost makes me jump out of my skin. I look up to see the same man who had been sitting on the bench just mere minutes ago, looking at me, a certain concern in his eyes. 

“I- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-” 

“So you took it then, eh?” He interrupts my apology. I look at him, now realizing he knows my friends made off with the money. 

“I didn’t- my friends did” I mutter, like the coward I am. I don’t mean to shove blame on them, but it was the truth. 

“Oh, dear me” is all he replies with, shaking his head. “I’m sorry to hear that” he tells me, taking the book back from my shaking hands. He jots something down with the pen he kept in his pocket, before closing it, and smiling at me with sympathy. 

“Sorry to hear that... why?” I ask, unsure I want to know the answer. “I can call them right now, they’ll bring it back. We didn’t know it was your money” I swear to him, but all he does is chuckle. 

“I’m afraid it’s already too late for them” his smile turns evil, and I can feel the goosebumps begin to envelop my skin. 

“What do you mean?” I ask, sweating despite being cold. 

“It’s not my money” he tells me, and now I’m completely confused. 

“What- what do you mean?” It’s all I can manage to squeak out. 

“Oh my dear, naive, Alex” he shocks me by knowing my name. “The money doesn’t belong to anyone. You see, I found that money; six years ago today” his words, despite it not being the case, sound complex and beyond my comprehension. “I’ve been waiting all day to see who was going to take my place” 

“Take your place at what? Are my friends in trouble?” I ask, terrified. Why the hell did they have to take the money? Why couldn’t they listen to me and just leave it where it sat? 

“That money has been around for a long, long time” he tells me, and as he does so he flips through the black notebook. “And owned by many people. But just as many of them, have done the same as I” 

I want to scream. I want to run. But it doesn’t matter; I’m frozen in fear. 

“For you see, it seems like a blessing in disguise, to mysteriously walk into such a vast amount of money. But, my dear boy, I can assure you, it’s quite the opposite” he looks around the park after he speaks, a satisfied smile placed on his lips. 

“What kind of game are you playing?” I try to sound intimidating, but my voice only comes out in a light whisper. 

“You see, there’s always somebody watching. Karma is a very real thing; more real than you could possibly imagine” he tells me, but to me it sounds like all he’s doing is speaking in code. 

“What do you-?” I ask, but I’m positive I already know where he’s going with this. Consequences for people who choose to take the money. Consequences because they were selfish. The notebook; it contained hundreds of names of people who chose to take the money instead of doing the right thing; and now my friends fell victim, just like so many before them. 

“Somebody’s always watching” are his last words to me, before his disappears into the night.