Editor,
Last Friday, after swimming at the high school pool earlier in the evening, there was a single knock at my door. It was late so I jumped up right away and went to open the door. There was no one there, just my thick black wallet sitting on my doorstep.
“Why was it there?” I thought. I ran out to the street the see a car turning around in the dark. I went up to the car window and asked the young man in the driver seat if he had just knocked at my door and placed my wallet there. He said yes, and that he had found it sitting on the parking lot at the high school pool.
I asked his name, which is Graham. Then I asked him if he went to the Laguna Beach High School, and he said yes he was a senior. His voice was kind and humble. I was at a loss for words so just I thanked him and awkwardly said. “I am proud of you” before he silently drove off into the night.
What I really meant to say at the time was I am sure his parents are proud of the honest, thoughtful young man they raised.
With no one around, he found the wallet of a stranger full of cash and valuables and in the darkness of a late weekend night drove all the way to the stranger’s house and tried to return it without being noticed.
But he did one other thing. I did not realize until a few days later. He had placed a one sentence hand written note from the corner of a scratch paper in my wallet. It said, “please do something nice for someone in your life” with a smiley face.
Graham, thank you, and I will do my best.
Dave Flores, Laguna Beach
