This simple story I relate to you exactly as it unfurled…reminding me there is still pure beauty and innocence in the world.
A mother and her daughter entered the bookstore…at guessing ages I am poor…I know enough not to try to guess the mother’s age…but her daughter was five…or maybe four.
They browsed around the bookstore for a while…up and down every aisle they looked…then they exited the store…without purchasing a book.
I could see them talking outside the window…I imagine there was a lesson the mother wanted her daughter to learn…because a few moments later…by herself…the daughter had returned.
Soon she was at the counter…book in hand…and in a voice so pleasant and nice asked, “Sir, could you please tell me…this book…what is the price?”
I told her $4.99…she smiled then I said, “Wait! There’s more…with tax this little golden book comes to five dollars thirty-four.
She thought for a moment and this is my favorite part to reminisce…then held up a twenty dollar bill and asked, “Is the price of the book less than this?”
And I had to smile as I witnessed the beauty and the innocence in this little girl with her hair flowing down her back when I told her, “Not only is that enough…but you’ll be getting money back!”
Once again with her beauty and innocence now on full display…she smiled…handed me the twenty dollar bill, picked up her book…and began to walk away.
“Wait!” I cried as she walked away while still within my range… “I’m glad you have your book but you forget your change.”
I will remember forever her expression…it was a smile both innocent and grand….when I counted out fourteen dollars and sixty-six cents and put it in her hand.
I could see how her mind was working…how lucky she felt…I could tell…
Because after coming in with one bill…
she was leaving with her book….5 bills and 4 coins as well.
“I’m rich!” She said smiling at me. “Richer than I was before….
I nodded thinking how we’re both a littler richer since she walked into the store.
As she left I silently thanked her for reminding me in this world there is beauty and innocence still….
a fact I will remember every time I find within my hands…a twenty dollar bill.
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