FICTION- SHORT STORY
A Passenger Forgot $ 2,000 in My Taxi. Shall I Return The Money?
Conscience
The whole day I felt apprehensive. It started this morning, as a passenger handed to me a wallet-like blue pocket that he happened to spot in the back seat of the car. I checked the pocket. There were 10.000 Yuan ($2.000) in it.
I am a taxi driver. This pocket must be lost by one of my passengers. How could they be so careless? But for sure they were very anxious and desperate.
Who would carry a lot of cash with them nowadays? In any Chinese city, you can pay for almost everything with a mobile phone, even the street vendors can provide a QR code for a scan. Only old people still pay by cash.
Old people? A flash of lightning illuminated my mind. There were a couple of old people who took my taxi this morning, but this lighting quickly went out. I can’t exactly remember where I dropped them off.
Maybe some of them have paid by mobile phone, they would receive an electronic invoice. On the invoice, they could find my mobile phone number. Hopefully, they would call me.
At this moment, my mobile phone rang. “So soon, they already found me.” I thought to myself. But I was wrong. It was from my brother.
“Lao Er (a nickname among family members for the second child in a family), our father got sick. He has cancer. Today the doctor told me.”
“What?”
“He has to get chemotherapy immediately. Do you know how expensive it is? 20.000 Yuan each time. Right now, I only have 10.000 Yuan. Can you pay for the other part? Also, we must collect more money for the coming therapies as soon as possible. The doctor said our father should perform at least 10 therapies within 6 months.”
“I …”
I stuck. 10,000 Yuan would be equivalent to my two month’s income. For 10 times therapy, we need 200,000 Yuan. Where can I get so much money in such a short time? Except for robbing a bank or stealing from a rich man.
Steal? New lighting struck my mind. I didn’t have to steal. There were 10,000 Yuan in my hand. A gift of the sky for me to save my father? at least he could live a little longer.
More than 20 years ago, our parents were farmers; we lived in the countryside. Unfortunately, my mother got rectal cancer, and we were too poor to recuse her. She died at home. She was just 51 years old.
My mother was a very kind person. She worked hard and never complained. She used to be quiet and calm, but during her last moments, she screamed often due to the pain. I shed tears all night and couldn’t sleep.
I already lost my mother. How can I lose my father in the same way?
When I and my brother grow up, we moved to the city. We worked hard. Compared to our parent’s generation, we are having a better life. As a courier, sometimes my brother earns more than I do if he were lucky. But his job is very risky. Once he delivered late, even if it was only a few minutes late, he might get complaints and had to compensate. In addition, it is also dangerous to ride a motorcycle through the chaotic streets and alleys all day long.
But what would I do if someone called me and reported the loss? My heart went up and down. I hoped to get a call from the owner, but at the same time, I was afraid of getting a call.
Till the evening, I didn’t get any call from the owner. Maybe I could keep the money. No one knew that they were kept by me. The passenger who found this pocket was kind; otherwise, he could have hidden it without telling me. Or maybe he is a rich man, and 10,000 Yuan didn’t count to him. Who knows?
With lots of heavy thoughts, I went home.
The light in the kitchen was on. My wife was cooking dinner. She is a care worker at a hospital.
“Lao Gong (a popular way in China how a wife calls her husband), come and help me! I will go back to the hospital quickly. You know what, Wang Popo (Popo = old lady) was out of control today. She lost a lot of money. That was her surgery fee, she needed a device for her heart. If she couldn’t find that money, she got to leave the hospital tomorrow without being surged.”
“How much money did she lose? And where did she lose it?”
“10.000 Yuan, but she couldn’t remember where she lost it. She said she took a taxi this morning, then she stayed in the hospital. She didn’t go anywhere else, maybe she lost her money in the taxi, but she could have also lost it somewhere in the hospital.”
I remembered it. This morning around 7 o’clock, an old woman went into my car. She paid the fare by cash. I think she was the only one who paid me by cash. No wonder, she can’t call me. People who pay by cash don’t get an invoice.
But it couldn’t be such a coincidence. I held a glimmer of hope that she didn’t lose her money in my car.
“Does she notice the license plate or the company of the taxi she took?”
“No, she doesn’t.”
“Do you know what kind of pocket did she put her money in?”
“She said, she was extra cautious and she put her ID and cash separate. I think for cash she had a blue pocket.”
My wife answered me while washing vegetables in the sink. The faucet was on and water was flowing loudly.
My heart started to beat wildly; my head was getting numb.
“What happened to you? Your face looks so pale.”
My wife turned her head and looked at me.
“Nothing happened. I just feel exhausted.”
She turned her head back and focused on her vegetables.
When we sat down and had dinner, my wife sighed.
“Poor Wang Popo, she doesn’t have a relative with her. All of her three daughters are living in other cities. She hired me to look after her. If she gave up the operation, she wouldn’t be needing me either.”
“But you can always find another patient, there are lots of them in the hospital.”
“Right now, I am looking after three patients. If Wang Popo went home, I get paid less. But you are right, I could find another one. Well, I can’t help her anyway. We have enough problems. Our son will go to college next year, we need to prepare tuition fee for him.”
After dinner, my wife went back to the hospital. She stayed there overnight to take care of her patients.
I went to bed early. I get up at 5 o’clock every day. But I couldn’t sleep that night.
When I closed my eyes, two different voices hunted my mind. One said, take the money! No one knows it. Your father is sick, he deserves to be saved. The other voice said, no, how could you do this? Look at Wang Popo, she is alone and sick. If she couldn’t get the device, she might die. Do you want to kill an innocent old woman? You are insane!
Enough! Stop now!
I couldn’t lie on the bed anymore. I got up and grabbed my phone. My wife was surprised to hear me at midnight.
On the next day, I brought the 10,000 Yuan to the hospital. Even though I was struggling by collecting money for my father’s treatment, I felt released.
One week later, I got a phone call overseas. A strange voice called my name excited. It was one of the daughters of Wang Popo.
She thanked me for returning the 10.000 Yuan, and for my honesty. She also felt sorry to hear that my father was sick and we needed money urgently. In the end, she said she and her two sisters could come back in two weeks. During that time, my wife could take care of her mother. She and her two sisters were grateful, so she would send me $1,000 to express their gratitude.
My head was buzzing. I thought I heard it wrong. But soon I got a call from the bank telling me to sign a remittance of $ 1000 from abroad.
I almost have committed a crime. Thank God, in the last second, I held the bottom line as a human being.
In our hearts, angels and demons are sitting there. They are evenly matched. Usually, they can get along. But when encountering difficult situations, angels and demons struggle intensely. Who can win the battle, depends on how strong the human’s will is.
Sometimes, we can betray the whole world to protect ourselves, but the only one we are not able to betray is ourselves.
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