A Chance to Give

The sun beaming through the windows bathed Layne’s tiny office in warmth. It was one of the many perks of working for a small firm; his office was likely a repurposed janitorial closet, but at a larger firm he would’ve been in some open space concept making sales calls with fifty others. Layne frowned at that thought. He shouldn’t be making sales calls at all. The firm had originally hired him as a supply chain analyst, but had eliminated several positions, including his, about five months ago. Layne was intimidated by the sales job, but he figured he’d rather learn than spend his savings paying the rent. He’d quickly discovered he had a knack for sales, which made him proud. It was 4 in the afternoon on Thursday—his weekend was about to start. He had tomorrow off as a bonus for high sales last quarter. He started tidying up documents on his desk and checking emails to make sure no issues had cropped up.

Friday morning

DING DING DING

Startled into wakefulness by his alarm clock, Layne groaned. It was 5 AM and he was only awake so he could join his friend hiking. Getting in an early morning hike had sounded much better last night. He reached over and hit the snooze button. After missing a few early morning classes in college, Layne had learned to set alarms in five-minute intervals starting half an hour before he really had to get going. Layne loathed those people who could bounce awake with just one or two alarms. They were unnatural. The lazy part of his soul whispered that he could just skip the hike and claim his phone died, but he hated ditching a friend. Besides, it was supposed to be gorgeous weather in Colorado today, and they would avoid the weekend crowds since he had a Friday off.

Four hours later

Layne parked his car and headed up to his apartment. The hike and the time with his buddy had been great. It was so much harder to stay in touch with friends now that he was out of college, but Colorado’s endless sunshine allowed for outdoor activities almost year-round, which helped. Leaning against his door was a large yellow envelope. Layne examined it with surprise: the only writing on the envelope was his name and address. It had no return address, labels, or barcodes. He hadn’t ordered anything recently and wasn’t expecting any packages. It was probably some silly promo or something. Layne opened the envelope and almost dropped it. This must be one hell of a promotion. Inside the envelope was a simple black notebook and, more jarring, a thick wad of cash. What the hell was going on?!

Layne suddenly had a suspicion and nonchalantly glanced around. These days, it seemed like kids on YouTube were always doing extreme things. He wouldn’t put it past some kid to leave something like this and plant half a dozen cameras for a reaction vid. But his searching eyes found no obvious cameras and not another human being. A little mollified, Layne still locked the door behind him just in case. Then it crossed his mind that maybe it was something shady. Did he just get mixed up in some sort of drug deal? Should he call the police? What would he even say to the police? “Uh, yeah officer, I just found some cash…” Layne was pretty sure the officer would laugh at him for not just pocketing the money. But maybe the notebook would explain something. Layne had used several like it in college. Most of them were products of failed journaling resolutions that he had repurposed for the classes he actually enjoyed. Layne opened it up and flipped through it: the only writing was on the front page.

It said:

Congratulations, Layne!

The 20,000 dollars are yours to spend with only one condition: The money must be spent on other people not yourself.

*see attached terms and conditions for further details. Not valid in all locations.

PS. The notebook is yours to keep.

PSS. It is highly recommended that you don’t test us by spending the money on yourself. 😊

Layne checked the envelope. He checked the cash. He checked his front porch. There were no attached terms and conditions. He rechecked the black notebook. Still nothing. Layne shook his head and poured a drink. He was usually no day-drinker, but today counted as extenuating circumstances.

Layne paced the length of his tiny apartment’s living room. Talking to himself always helped order his thoughts when he was in a difficult situation. Or a weird situation. As Layne thought about it, he decided that this was the weirdest situation he had ever been in. It all came down to a couple things. Either it was a prank, or it was legitimate. He decided it didn’t make sense for it to be shady, since the envelope had been addressed to him and his name was in the black notebook. If it was a prank, then he probably wasn’t the first. He retrieved his laptop and started Googling. Nothing. He phrased it every possible –still nothing. No YouTube videos about pranking people with 20 Grand. Not even a Reddit thread about it. So, either he was the first, or maybe it was legitimate.

Layne paced some more. Then some more. And a little more. Finally, at about 2 in the afternoon, Layne realized all he was doing was wasting his day off. He could call the cops and probably get laughed at, or he could just spend the money and hope for the best. Hell, it was cash, so if it was a prank what could they do? Plus, the notebook said to spend it on other people, which would be odd criteria for a prank. Spending it was Layne’s only real option. Maybe somewhere along the way he’d get an answer to the most important question—why me?

But how should he spend the money? Just randomly drive around town and give money to the people on street corners with those pitiful cardboard signs? No, that wouldn’t do. Layne tried not to be a cynic, but he knew there were better ways to help those people than just giving out cash. The easy way out was to spend it all on friends and family, but that bothered him a little. His friends were all doing well, and while money was tight for his parents, it had always been that way. He really doubted they would accept money from him… unless it was for something fun. He would send his parents on a vacation!

Layne’s parents almost never took time off. Combined, he was pretty sure they had taken more days off to watch their kids’ sporting events than they had taken sick days or days for themselves. Also, his younger sister would be heading to college soon and Layne figured they wouldn’t protest if he bought her a new laptop. Okay, so money for a trip to someplace tropical and a laptop. Probably $3,000 for the trip and $1,000 for the laptop, so $4,000 total. That still left a lot of money to spend. Layne decided that he would make use of that black notebook to keep track of his math.

He would play it all off as getting a bonus from his job so they wouldn’t ask too many questions. It was going to be really fun to treat his parents and they would probably come back with all sorts of awkward stories. Sending cash by mail was stupid though, and he wasn’t about to see them in person; he’d have to deposit the cash so he could send it electronically. It was time to head to the bank and unfortunately, he probably needed to deposit this all in person. Layne preferred ATMs and self-checkout lines over interacting with people. Probably his millenialness coming out.

The bank seemed busy for early Friday afternoon, and only one teller was working. While in line he overheard a middle-aged man on the phone.

“Yeah honey, I’m waiting on the loan officer right now.”

“No.”

“Yep.”

“No love, I have no idea if they can pause the payments on the auto loan.”

“Well, I wasn’t planning on being fired either.”

A longer pause, then a sigh.

“Yes, I’ll call once I find out what can be done.”

An idea started forming in Layne’s head, but before he could think it through the teller was calling for the next customer. He made a snap decision and said, “Sorry ma’am, I need to change something on my deposit slip.” The teller just shrugged and motioned to the woman behind Layne.

Layne looked at the cash and then counted out twenty fifty-dollar bills: one thousand dollars. It wasn’t enough to pay the bills for very long, but he had to bet it would help a lot. The man was still waiting for a loan officer, so Layne walked over to him. He placed the bills on the table and said, “I think you need these more than me.” The man just looked at the bills and then at Layne and then back at the bills before speaking. “Ummm, what are you talking about?” Layne shifted awkwardly; it was too late to look back. “I overheard you on the phone. I figured you could use the money.” The man opened his mouth, then shut it again. He looked like he wanted to refuse but couldn’t decipher a polite way to do so. Finally, he stood up, grabbed Layne’s hand, and shook it firmly. “Thank you very much.” Layne smiled and nodded, then turned back towards the teller. Inwardly, Layne breathed a sigh of relief—he had been afraid the man would protest. While it was uplifting to have helped someone, it had also been nerve-wracking.

Soon, Layne was walking out of the bank. It felt like he had just shed a heavy pack like the ones he used for backpacking. Thankfully, he could give the rest of the money away without talking to anyone. Of the $19,000 he had deposited he had $4,000 sorted. Now, what to do with the other $15,000? Layne had ideas, but he was going to do his due diligence before giving. Too many charities spent the lion’s share of their money on expenses and big salaries for execs. He only wanted to give this money to charities that would use it well. After hours of research and many disappointments, Layne had his targets. He was going to split the money between five charities and give $3,000 to each one.

He’d selected a local rescue mission that helped homeless people overcome their circumstances; an organization that provided meals for seniors in need; and a foundation that helped build smart homes for disabled veterans. The fourth organization was a startup concept for building technology to clean up plastic from the Pacific Ocean. Layne knew it might not work but he appreciated that the organization’s purpose extended beyond legislation to tackling the problem itself as well. The fifth was a trail conservation organization he’d seen a sign for while hiking the other day. After spending some time on their website, Layne felt good about not only donating, and he’d joined a waitlist to volunteer with them. Layne felt very satisfied with his decisions. He still didn’t know who had entrusted him with the money or why he had been chosen, but he was very confident he’d spent it well.

Two weeks later

Layne returned home from work and found an envelope on his doorstep. There was no return address, and the handwriting looked remarkably like that on the larger yellow envelope that had contained the notebook. This envelope contained only a card with two words:

“Well done.”