The Mysterious Gift

Where is Oakwood? Exactly. You never heard of it before and its not the kind of place that just screams at you 'hey come visit me'. It was a small rural community in North Carolina known for, well pretty much nothing. This day in particular I was running late for work, walking the down the street of my beat-up neighborhood. My walk actually became a sprint as I was trying to catch the 8 a.m. bus so I can get to work on time. As I was sprinting I bumped into this sweet old lady named Ms. Washington, she have lived in the neighborhood for years and every one knew her. I apologized to her quickly as I made my way on the bus. After I arrived to Jazzy Jambalaya Joint on 4th street I proceeded to clock in and get on with today's menu. Our specialty was of course Jambalaya, it was my Grandma's recipe that I had perfected. I took off my coat and this little black book fell out of my pocket. It wasn't mine so I immediately began to look around, curious as to how it got into my pocket. I thought about it for a second and realized Ms. Washington must have put it there, but why? I shook off that feeling so I can start cooking today's specials but that thought just lingered in the back of my head. If you know me you know I am a curious individual so I told Miguel to take over and cover for me while I investigate what happened. I tried to find Ms. Washington but when I arrived to her apartment, her neighbors told me she left and wouldn't be back for some time. So, you know me, I opened the little black book and what I saw inside was shocking. It appeared to be an account number listed beside the name of our local bank and it had a little footnote beside the account. The note said " This is my life savings and I would like for you to have this because you have proven yourself worthy and deserving. Make wise choices. Love Mom". Now I am really confused by all this because I really never knew my mom, because she left me when I was 2 years old. I am now 43 years old and never even thought about her after I got over the fact she was never coming back. Could it be, could Ms. Washington be my mom? I had to find out, so I went to the bank and talked to the bank associates about this account. The associate confirmed that the account was in my name and belonged to me. I was flabbergasted by this ordeal and wondering what was going on, it didn't make sense. The bank associate then handed me a slip of paper and it showed that I had a balance of $187,563 in this account. I never said a word about it to anyone until now. Ms. Washington was my mother and she came into some money and set up this account in my name because she felt terribly wrong about leaving me and this is how she wanted to repay me. I ended up giving the money to a local charity because I didn't want her money, I had already received my blessings. All I ever wanted was her love. I went back to the Jazzy's and finished my Jambalaya and just thought like wow, I've seen this woman around for 17 years and the whole time... she was my mother.

THE END