one hundred dollar bill

It was back in my dark days, early 21st century; I was depressed and constantly smoking herb and cigarettes. I was in the grocery store about to pay a bill; there was this old woman at the counter next to me digging through her purse for something. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her drop something that looked like green paper. I looked down and it was a one hundred dollar bill. I quickly looked up at the lady and she was still digging through her purse, totally oblivious of the BenFrank that just fell out of her purse. I took a side step in her direction and placed the sole of my right shoe on top of the money, totally covering it. I slid my foot back over to the left and remained cool. As the teller was processing my bill, and the old lady was still looking for something in her purse, I knelt down and picked up the money and slipped it into my pocket.


I walked out of the store feeling good; I was high, and I had just come up on a hundred dollars. Those good feelings quickly turned to shame and misery. After I got home, a few hours later, I began to think about what I had done. I took that old woman’s hard earned money. She could have needed that to pay for medication, or a bill, or food. I began to think about my grandmother and how hard she worked for what she had. How would she have felt about losing, rather having her money stolen by some smoked out and depressed asshole? I was sick, and there was no way of finding that old lady to give her money back. The moment wore off but the bad taste never left my mouth. I was ashamed of myself for taking that old lady’s money. It felt like a cloud was constantly over my head. The fact that I shopped at that same store quite often did not make things any better. Every time something went wrong and money was involved I thought about that one hundred dollar bill. I started to think that I had cursed my family by taking that money.

I carried that shit around with me for about nine years. I did not think about it every day, but it was there. One day I got an idea; I’ll take one hundred dollars out of my next check and give it so some random old lady. I got paid on the following Friday, and after I cashed my check I headed to the store. I walked the aisles looking for an old Black lady. I found one in the meat section, by the ground beef. I walked up and said, “Excuse me mam, but do you believe in karma?”

She gave me a kind of blank, scared look and said, “Who?”

“Never mind, I found some money right here in this store some years ago and now I would like to pass it on to someone. Can I give it to you?”

“Sure, I guess…”

I placed the crisp one hundred dollar bill in her palm, “Thank you mam!”

“Thank you!” She replied.

I walked away and didn’t look back.