The Karmic Coincidence

I like to discover what part of me

Is tantalized when I see

An item that costs money

So I won’t be deceived

Instead I can conceive

On the same paper we receive

Working jobs we hate, indeed

The experiences we believe

Imaginary Realities

Let me see all that’s inside of me

Including several treasured memories

I get to engage with in my poetry

Wendy spotted the wallet on the floor on her way to the mall entrance.

“Oooh,” her friend and roommate Loretta said. “How much is inside?”

“That’s not important,” Wendy said and opened the wallet up. She didn’t have to search much to see the identification card inside, in the pocket with a translucent face. “We should just give it to the lost and found, or if we see a guy named James, we can hand it back to him.” Wendy showed Loretta the Massachusetts driver’s license. Loretta glanced at the ID but stared at the wallet in Wendy’s other hand.

“Looks kinda fat,” Loretta said as she quickly swiped it from Wendy.

“Hey!”

“Oh my God,” Loretta said. She reached into the cash pocket and pulled, “Three 100s, Four 20s, Three 10s, two 5s, and four 1s. That’s...” Loretta took her phone out.

“Four Hundred Twenty Four,” Wendy said.

“Four Hundred and Twenty Four Dollars,” Loretta said. “That’s Two Twelve for each of us.”

“Loretta, I can’t do that.”

“I’m not saying we buy up this whole mall with the guy’s cards.”

“What if that was your wallet, Loretta?”

“Here,” Loretta said handing Wendy the wallet back with all the rest of the cards intact. You found it like that, then. I don’t keep enough cash in my wallet to be sad if I lost the cash in it. It’s money,” Loretta said, laughing. “Gosh, you gotta lighten up. We’re at the mall! Now I can get two shoes instead of one, maybe three! Now I can’t wait to shop!” Loretta said.

Wendy sighed opening the door to the mall. “I’m gonna give this to the lost and found, and then what time do you wanna meet back up,” she said. Wendy realized she had been talking to herself when she saw Loretta already making her way into the DSW store inside the mall. “Wow, I can’t believe it,” Wendy said shaking her head.

Going to the mall was Loretta’s idea. Wendy preferred online retail when it came to shopping for things. The shipping wait times weren’t bothersome for her in the least - the items actually almost felt like they arrived immediately for her since she would always purposefully forget when she bought it so her packages would come to her like gifts from her past self. She didn’t track it because that’s never gotten anything delivered more quickly. Most importantly, she only urged herself to remember when she purchased her packages when she received them. She’d replay and compare her memory of thinking what it would be like to have that thing she saw on the screen only days ago, to what it was actually like when the thing was finally tangible and in front of her.

For Wendy, the mall was closer to being a museum. This was a museum of things in which you had the option to buy the exhibits. Loretta would argue a museum is a mall for someone who’s rich enough. But, Wendy reasoned that people didn’t go to a museum to purchase the displays, they went to observe and appreciate the exhibits. It was with this same temperament that she roamed the open halls of the malls with a bubble tea engaging in some of the most intense window shopping imaginable, while also people watching. She came to the mall with one of her little black notebooks and pencil. Wendy would sometimes go into a random store but wouldn’t usually buy anything she couldn’t find cheaper online.

Wendy passed by the DSW Loretta had disappeared into, and several other stores. None of them seemed to really interest her because she was so familiar with it all. She could walk through an imaginary rendition of the entire mall, all from memory, at this point. She approached the lost and found office midway into the mall, next to the Starbucks across from the food court.

“How can I help you miss?” the receptionist said.

“Yeah, I found this wallet at the entrance,” Wendy said. She reached into her pocket and placed the wallet on the small table between them.

“Find any money?”

“No, that’s how I found it, like that.”

“Sure you did,” the receptionist said. She threw the wallet into a large bin behind her. “I’m sure the owner will be glad to get his wallet back full of cards he’ll probably have to cancel,” she joked.

Wendy feigned a smile. “Hopefully,” she said before walking back out into the core of the mall.

Wendy continued to go inside of the Macy’s located at the other end of the mall. She was captivated by a Turtle necklace she saw in the jewelry section, in one of the glass display cases; the tag beside it read $1,399.99… Wendy took out her little black book and placed it gently on the glass display table, along with her pencil. She flipped to a blank page in her book and began to draw the turtle she saw on the necklace.

“Whoa, that’s cool,” a male voice said from behind the counter. “But, my boss said, ‘either you try it, buy it, or you go.’”

“Oh,” Wendy said slamming the notebook shut. “I’m sorry about that, I’ll go.” She returned the notebook back into her pocket and made her way out of the store.

“But, you were studying it so intensely. You know you wanna at least try it,” the employee said but Wendy was already gone. “Oh, well, I don’t blame her. Who’s buying a necklace for a thousand four hundred bucks? Well, someone did buy that ring for twenty three hundred last week, lucky me on that commission” The employee went to help another customer.

“I’m guessing you spent that money,” Wendy said to Loretta. They sat at a table in the food court and Loretta’s side of the booth had the three DSW bags laid beside her.

“Oh, how could you tell?” Loretta said.

“Not even any remorse. Ruthless, Loretta, ruthless,” Wendy said and shook her head side to side.

“Why do you even come to the mall? You don’t buy anything except for these.” Loretta reached behind one of the DSW bags and placed a three pack of black little notebooks wrapped in clear plastic. “I thought you might like them.” She looked back up at Wendy hoping to see a surprise gift smile but Wendy’s face didn’t change from the straight-faced look that resembled how she felt about Loretta at that moment.

“I thought I said I didn’t want any of that money we found,” Wendy responded. She slid the three pack of little notebooks back over to Loretta.

“You didn’t take any of it,” Loretta said. “This was supposed to be a gift I got you with my money.”

“Your money?”

“Why can’t you appreciate it when someone tries to do something nice for you?”

“Because I’m not the only one affected by these good gestures.”

Loretta scoffed, “Humph; now I see why Ben always said you were ungrateful and too picky.”

“Oh wow. It’s just like you to bring up what Ben didn’t like about me when I don’t act the way you want me to,” Wendy said. “There are so many other reasons why we broke up!”

“I know, Wendy, I know,” Loretta said.

“I’m me, and you’re you… I don’t know why you always have to bring him up and, remind me of that whole thing.” Wendy looked away.

“Wendy! ” Loretta took a deep breath. “I’m sorry about that. How about we eat some lunch and relax. Maybe you can show me what kind of things you didn’t buy, from your notebook that literally costs ten times what a notebook should cost.”

“Really,” Wendy said, “You couldn’t just leave it at ‘relax’?”

“Hey, you judge me for over-spending on my shoes all of the time,” Loretta said.

“That’s because you have more shoes than an entire family could wear. You already have a mountain of shoes in the closet by the door. As usual, they avalanched on top of you before we left the apartment earlier. It’s like we already have a shoe warehouse at the apartment and you went and bought, what, six more pairs of shoes?” Wendy said.

“Three, actually,” Loretta said, “and see, you can be a bitch too.” They both laughed – this type of behavior was normal between them.

“So what’ll be, good ole’ bourbon chicken?” Loretta suggested.

“Well, we could just...” Wendy started, before Loretta interrupted.

“I know you don’t wanna have anything to do with the money we found, but don’t be so much of a goody two shoes to decline a lunch offer from a friend. Even if that friend is a criminal thief,” Loretta joked before walking over to the Chinese restaurant in the food court - the Hong Gong Wok.

“Oh, no,” Wendy said. She looked under the table and under her seats. She got up to see if maybe she’d dropped her notebook on her way back from the Macy’s. “No, no, no, no” Wendy reached into her pockets for a third time.

“You seem stressed, miss,” a familiar voice said approaching her from behind. It was the employee from the Macy’s. He looked familiar too.

“James?”

“Ah, so you did look up from your drawing earlier,” he said, “You seemed so into it, I didn’t even think you saw my name tag when I came. You left in such a hurry; I didn’t mean to scare you off like that. But, I think you dropped something important on your way out. Is this what you’re looking for?” He handed Wendy her little black notebook. Wendy grabbed it out of his hands.

“Oh thank God,” Wendy said. She sat back down and proceeded to catch her breath.

“I’m hoping I’m as lucky as you, James said. “You probably got that heart drop feeling when you checked the last place it could be, right? That was me not too long ago with my wallet. I was just on my way to the lost and found to hand in your notebook until I saw you get up, here. Blue shirt, red hair, big glasses – you were pretty easy to see,” he said. “But, I still gotta check the lost and found to see if someone at least returned the wallet. I know the money’s gone, dammit, but who knows, maybe I’ll have good luck, or maybe my karma’s good after this good deed.”

“Um…” Loretta said, holding the tray with two plates of Chinese food.

James turned around. “Whoops, my bad,” he said, “I just came to return her journal. She dropped it when she ran outta Macy’s. I was just on my way. Nice meeting you, and don’t worry, I promise, I didn’t look at any of the pages.” He turned around again and made his way towards the lost and found office across from the food court.

“Wait, James” Loretta said. “Why don’t you join us for lunch? It’s the least we can do for you being so nice.”

“Sure,” James said, “I’ll be right back.”

Loretta laid the food on the table, “You didn’t say you found the guy! He doesn’t know does he?”

“No, I honestly didn’t even know that was him working at the Macy’s,” Wendy said.

“Ooooh, interesting day, today, then. I’ll be back too; I hope he likes bourbon chicken.”

Loretta went back to the Chinese place when James was returning from the lost and found office. Wendy looked through the pages of her notebook and opened it up to the turtle necklace drawing.

“Mind if I sit next to the shoes?” James said.

“No, go ahead. Did they find your wallet?” Wendy asked.

“Yeah, but of course I didn’t find my money.”

“How much did you lose,” Wendy asked.

“You’d think I was rich if I told you. It was my whole last paycheck’s worth – four hundred and twenty three, or four, bucks,” he said, looking down at the table. “Argh!” He banged his hand on the table. “Dammit.”

“Why would you carry so much cash on you?”

“I don’t usually. See, it’s my girlfriend’s birthday tomorrow and she wanted something from there.” James pointed at the pile of DSW bags next to him. “We walked by the store once and she saw a pair of shoes in the display window she said she wished she could have. Well, I tried buying those shoes yesterday with my card, but get this, their machines were down. So, I needed cash, and those shoes were like two hundred something bucks. The one time I carry around cash, right?”

“If the shoes were only two hundred dollars, why’d you carry around an extra 200 if you don’t usually carry money on you?” Wendy said.

“Well, I thought Emily might’ve liked another pair of shoes I saw in the store that looks similar to the display ones. Emily’s her name. She loves shoes, for some reason.” He threw his hands up in the air. “Oh well, maybe the DSW in the next town has it.”

“Bourbon chicken for everyone!” Loretta said returning from Hong Gong Wok with another plate of food she laid on the table. She sat next to Wendy. “So, James, did you find your wallet?”

“How’d you know I lost my wallet?” he said.

Loretta’s eyes widened in surprise. “Um, lucky guess.”

“Actually, I told her about our encounter at Macy’s earlier and how you mentioned you lost it,” Wendy said.

“Oh,” James said, “well let’s start eating; I only got maybe twenty minutes left in my break. Thanks for the food.”

“Like I said, it was my pleasure,” Loretta said. “Wendy went crazy the last time she lost her diary. You saved our evening, and you probably stopped a scene from happening at the mall.”

“Yes, thank you, Loretta for reminding me of that time way back from high school! Can we eat?”

“That’s what the food is here for.”

“So what kind of shoes you’d get this time, Loretta” Wendy said before taking a bite of food.

“I’m surprised you care,” Loretta said, “I thought all shoes look the same to you. But oh my God, I got these pink stilettoes they had on display.”

“No way,” James said, “Were they the ones they had up there for close to two hundred bucks?”

“How’d you know?” Loretta said.

“Lucky guess,” James said.

“What’s going on here?! Did you plan this?”

“No, Loretta.”

“Plan what,” James said, “if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Nothing,” Wendy said. “She thinks, um…” Wendy looked up to see James and Loretta giving their full attentions to her. “She thinks I was going to set you two up on some kind of blind date, like she did with me a couple of years ago with some guy named Ben.”

“What?” James said. “I barely know either of you and I have a girlfriend already.”

“Right,” Wendy said. “Emily...”

“Ok, never mind then,” Loretta said and chuckled before returning to her plate of food.

“You’re not a size six are you?” James said.

“No, I’m a size seven, why?”

“You don’t know how crazy it would’ve been if you were a size six; that’s Emily’s size. I was just telling Wendy how I found my wallet but all the money in it was taken. I’m probably gonna have to cancel my cards too.”

“Oh really,” Loretta said. “How much did they take?”

“Too much. Enough so I have to travel to the DSW in Lee before I stop home, to get those exact same shoes for my girlfriend’s birthday tomorrow.”

“You have your wallet back. Why don’t you just buy them from this DSW? They had a size six.”

“They’re card machines are back up!?” James said.

“Oh, yeah… They were only taking cash.” Loretta said.

“Exactly, so, once again, thanks for the food but I should get going back to work, especially if I wanna leave a little early. Maybe I’ll see you around.” James got up, threw his empty plate out, and was on his way back to the Macy’s.

Back at the table, Loretta and Wendy were staring at each other.

“Now, I feel bad,” Loretta said. “I know you did that purposefully.”

Wendy didn’t reply for a while, she only smiled. “I said I didn’t. That was just a great coincidence. I only said what I said to help you feel a kind of way.”

Loretta looked through her DSW bags and took a shoe box out of one of them. She placed it on the table and revealed the pair of pink stilettoes. “Alright, alright, I guess I’m not completely evil. This Emily sounds like she has good taste in shoes, and in guys,” Loretta said. “It’s too bad his girlfriend is a size six; I may have offered him my pair out of generosity.”

“I have an idea,” Wendy said. She took a minute to draw up a sketch of the shoes, similar to the way she drew the turtle necklace. “Where’s the receipt?”

“We can’t do that,” Loretta said.

“They’re just another pair of shoes, for you. Come on, it’s a special gift for someone else.”

“I mean, he’s definitely going to find me out then, or at least know it was us who found and took his wallet.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Wendy said. She tore out the small page and wrote a note on the back of it. “Don’t you think he would’ve known it was you who took his money if I didn’t save your ass when you mentioned the wallet like that?”

Loretta rolled her eyes. “Ok, ok, but I’m keeping the other two pairs.”

“I think you’ll get to, for this plan to work.”

“What’s your plan?” Loretta said.

“First, I have to exchange these for the right size and then, give me one of those new little notebooks you bought.”

That evening, James found another little black book like the one he found for Wendy earlier.

“That’s odd; she didn’t tell me she carries two diaries at the same time. Strange girls,” he muttered, “Oh, well. I guess I can leave this with the lost and found on my way out.”

Inside of the little book was the loose drawing of the stilettoes with a note that read:

Return book to lost and found

Say your girlfriend lost shoes that look like this drawing

Tell Emily, Happy Birthday!

-W&L