"A three thousand dollar jewel..."
At my standard sprint pace I was gathering goods to leave the office for a series of appointments then the clinic.
"I'll do the banking if you like. I have a meeting there anyway about the merchant stuff..." I offer to Elaine. They look at me dubiously in the office. I continue, "You know, I do know how to deposit funds. I can handle it. So... this envelope?"
I have so much on. Let's face it, I always do :) This impending event, the blessed wedding, is frustrating me no end with its constant intrusion into an already strained schedule. God forbid when, like this week, people have jerked the chain on me: no-showing me and not calling, changing appointments last minute, various things not arriving as they were meant to (not least of all my bridal gown heading off on its own to France, apparently. Still don't have it).
Sure enough in my bag as I exit were several last minute wedding invitations to be jammed in the nearest postal reciprocal somewhere on my journey. I bolt from the office.
Ahem, well...I forgot to deposit the cash at the bank yesterday (don't tell Elaine!). This morning I frantically stripped my bag looking for the envelope... Did I put somewhere "safe"? I'm looking about the office, flinging stacks about, "Did they have no faith and take it themselves?" I text Elaine, in a disguised confession: "do you recall where I put that envelope...?"
Before she replies there is a knock at my door. The postman. He never comes to the door. Our mailbox is a significant and steep distance from our door...
"Can I help you?" I smile.
"I think I can help you actually." The postman says, "Looking for anything?"
Ok, a cryptic postie.
My true answer would have been , "Patience." However, before I could summon a polite response he procured an envelope.
An envelope with over $3000 cash in it and several cheques.
THE envelope.
"You posted this yesterday" he grinned
"What?!"
He chuckled at my astonishment.
"But, but...how?!"
Trying to get the mail in the mailbox before the 6pm pick up the night before, I had stopped at our local box, car still running and deposited the wedding invitations, before leaping back in. This postman saw me doing it as he was about to do the pick up.
"When I was pulling the mail out a few coins fell out of the pile you'd just put in, so I investigated. Lucky you had the return address on it!" (Bless you, Elaine, for your choice of envelope (disguised cash transportation). I shall never again laugh at the few coins you put in to be "absolutely exact".)
"Even luckier that I saw you, so when you answered the door I could return it."
Messy, exuberant gratitude gushed from me. I offered him cash reward which he had to refuse.
What great integrity this man had. It was mostly cash: no-one would have ever known if he had kept it. Yet not only did he return it, he went out of his way to do it. A good man :)
He left wishing us "all the best for our wedding" and for a moment I wondered "Is he psychic?" then recalled that the envelope had been disguised amid wedding invitations...sigh...
Invasive rite of passage is this wedding upon my usual schedule madness.
And what a jewel this man was amongst it :)
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