I had a nice thing happen to me on Christmas Eve. I was sitting in the drugstore close to 4 p.m. waiting to get a flu shot. It wasn’t going to be a long wait but I happily grabbed a magazine and settled in a chair. No hurry. Everything in hand for Christmas. Time to relax. Yay!
Then this gorgeous little girl with a headful of kinky, wispy hair walked by. It was standing up and falling all over the place at the same time. She must have been about seven and it was all I could do not to reach and touch it. She sat down beside me, with her neon green jacket that only a youngster would wear, with what appeared to be a sister or a cousin, not much older than 20.
I smiled at the little girl and kept reading. The older girl fussed on her phone, called someone with what sounded like a mild agitated tone. Heaved a sigh. Hung up and started flipping through her phone again.
I politely asked if something was wrong. There was. She had lost her wallet, possibly at her dad’s, and she had a $50 money order to access with her phone that the post office, located a few aisles away, couldn’t cash without ID.
“Christmas Eve at 4 p.m. and she can’t get access to cash she has?” A bit dire, I thought.
I offered to help. Let’s go over the post office, I said cheerily, thinking maybe they could use my credit card to release the money. They couldn’t.
Then I said, how about I lend you the $50 in cash and you pay me back later with an e-transfer? She looked at me blankly at first. And then said, okay. We exchanged emails and phone numbers. I found she’s from Toronto. We went to the bank across from the store and I took out 50 bucks. “Now, you will pay me back, right? I said, as I handed it over.
Yes, absolutely, she reassured me, possibly still in a bit of shock. And off she went, towing the little girl, who had watched everything intently, but stayed quiet. I went back to wait for my flu shot.
So, I’m feeling good about myself having given someone a little help on Christmas Eve (although any day would be a good day to do someone a favour).
I know a scam when I see one, I’ve been scammed before (not so easy in later years, though) and the thought crossed my mind that this may have been one. But then I thought, nope. This wasn’t a scam. She totally wasn’t expecting anyone to ask if they could lend her money.
And even if it wasn’t a scam and I still didn’t get the money back, it really didn’t matter, I told myself. I’ll just write it off in my mind as a good deed. And that little innocent face framed by the sprawling out-of-control hair, looking like a dandelion gone to seed, kept coming to mind.
So, what do your think happened? Did I get the money back? Or not?
What were the chances?
One hundred per cent, as it turned out. I received the e-transfer a week later.
