$6,535.00

I was on my way to Creamy Goodness Studio to work on
'Hiding From Your Pain' for the album when I saw a folded check on the ground. I picked up this signed check to discover that it was written in the amount of $6535.00 and written from a Ms. B to a Mr. D (same last name.)

Along with the address on the check was a phone number, so I decided to call and let Ms. B know that I had found the check, but there was no answer, so I put it in my pocket and decided I would mail it to the woman who had written it.

2 Days Later...

I was in a coffee shop in Manhattan working on the copy for the inside of the album when my friend Laura messaged me and asked if I wanted to have lunch. She was craving falafels and so I said that we should go to Momoun's, which is my favorite place to have a falafel in New York. A falafel and humus sandwich was $2.50 when I moved here 8 years ago and the price is still $2.50. It is the perfect food for a starving musician.

As Laura and I were sitting eating our Falafels, I realized that I still had the check on me, and I was only a few blocks away from the address listed. I told Laura all about it and we decided that we would find the address and deliver the check back to its original owner.

We found the address with some assistance from an NYU map. We told the doorman that we had a delivery for Ms. B. He called up to the apartment and gave my name and had a puzzled look on his face. So, I told him that I was delivering a check that I had found. We were told to wait and that someone was coming down to see us.

I was practicing the act of balancing my guitar. If a floor is level it will stand up on its own, which always entertains me for some odd reason. The elevator opened and a gentleman who appeared to be in his mid-thirties approached me.

"Are you Robert?"

"Yes. Hi. I found this check in the street and I wanted to return it."

(I handed him the check.)

"where did you find this?"

"Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn"

"You came all the way from Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn?"

"No. Well, I was going to mail it. I called but nobody answered. we were having lunch in the neighborhood, so I thought I would just drop it by.
Are you Mr. D?"

"No, um. That's my brother. Wow, um. Thanks. um."

There was something strange in the look on his face. He had no idea this check existed until I handed it to him. The wheels were turning in my head. Was Ms. B is wife? Was She his mother? Maybe his brother was having an affair with his wife and she was paying him off to keep him from telling the brother about their forbidden love. Maybe the mother who had been stingy with the brother's requests for money was generously sending $6,535.00 checks to Mr. D. What would become of this situation? Laura and I discussed as we walked away. She suggested that this saga was not done. We would hear about someone being murdered on the news.

She thinks that she had met the brother before. She thinks that we will see him again. Fate has some bizarre design. It wasn't chance that Laura craved a Falafel. It wasn't chance that I suggested a place near the address. There is something strange and fatalistic that has begun. I fear it has a tragic end.

Oh god, this is the story of my life. I try to do something right or what I think is the right thing and then it leads to some horrible outcome. ugh.

Photo by Carrie Thomas