A man was walking down the street when he noticed a $5 bill laying by the curb. Thinking how lucky he was to find it, he picked it up and put it in his pocket. He continued walking wondering how to spend his new found money. Shortly he came to a tavern. The day had become very hot so he decided to go in and have a tall, cold beer. He went up to the bar, slapped the $5 on the counter, and asked the bartender for a draft of his finest brew. The bartender returned with his beer along with $1 in change. The man sat at the bar, drinking his fine brew, and wondered what to do with the rest of his money. Tipping the bartender didn't enter his mind for he was careful with his money on most occasions. So he downed his beer and left the bar.
       Now again walking down the street, the man realized just how hot the day had become. About that time he noticed a street vender selling ice cream cones for seventy-five cents each. The salvation to his discomfort seemed to be at hand. He went up to the vender and asked for a chocolate cone, handing the dollar over.
       Cone in hand, and a quarter in his pocket, he thought the day had come to a satisfactory conclusion, and with change left over! As he walked licking his ice cream cone euphorically, he noticed a young woman sitting on the steps of a run-down tenement. The woman had red, tear-wet eyes, and a sad, mournful look about her. Curious, the man asked her what was wrong. She replied that she was on the way to the pharmacy to get her sick child the medicine he needed for his asthma, and somewhere along the way she had dropped the $5 she had to pay for it. So now her boy was inside wheezing and miserable, while she came outside for a moment so her son wouldn't see her tears.
       The man felt terrible. He was sure the money he had found was the money the woman had dropped. He also remembered passing a pharmacy before finding it. Distraught and upset, he didn't know what to do. Though at most times he was tight with whatever money he had, something about the situation touched him. Perhaps it was the tears of the young mother, but for whatever reason he was determined to help her get the money she needed for her son's medicine, especially since he had found the money she had lost.
       He told the woman not to worry, things would work out. She choked back her tears and thanked the man for his well wishes. Then the man turned away and walked back down the street.
       He was racking his brain trying to think of a way to get $5 for the mother and her boy, cursing himself for spending it so frivolously. He came along to a pawn shop, and decided to sell anything he had on him at the time to get the money. All he had of any remote value was his watch. Not much of a watch by most standards, but surely worth five dollars. He entered the shop and showed his watch to the proprietor. The shop owner was only willing to pay $3 for the watch. It was better than nothing, so the man accepted.
       Now all he needed was two more dollars to be able to return the woman the money she had lost. He didn't have a clue what to do. There was nothing left for him to pawn. He walked back down the street towards the woman on the stairs hoping something would come to him before he was back at here apartment building. Nothing did.
       When he arrived at the building the woman was no longer on the steps so he went inside to see if he could find her apartment. Walking down the hall he heard sounds coming from behind a door that could only be her son wheezing and coughing. He rang the buzzer waiting for her to answer. She opened the door, and was puzzled to why the man had returned. With the best smile he could manage, he explained to the mother he wanted to help her get the medicine, and handed her the three dollars. The mothers eyes lit up and she smiled from ear to ear! It turned out she only needed three dollars for the medicine, the rest was to buy her son a comic book to read while in bed. She thanked the man for his generosity, and asked if he would do just one more favor for her. The man, remembering the two dollars he couldn't come up with, told her it would be his pleasure to help. She asked him if he would go to the pharmacy and get the medicine for her. She didn't want to leave her son alone in case he had a bad coughing fit before she could return. The man agreed, so she gave him the empty prescription, and off he went to the drug store.
       At the drug store he gave the pharmacist the empty inhaler, and received a new one for three dollars. Returning to the mother's apartment, he gave her the medicine and turned to leave. She stopped him and insisted he stay for dinner as a way to thank him for his kindness. Though he felt some way responsible for her distress in the first place, he agreed to stay.
       Despite her seemingly modest means, the woman prepared a wonderful dinner. While her son slept, exhausted from his earlier coughing, they talked about life, themselves, and learned of each other. It turned out the woman's husband had left them a few years earlier because he wasn't prepared to deal with a sick son. All the better for them, the woman told him, she didn't want any man around who only had time for a healthy child. She said it was difficult being a single mother, but her son was her life, and she would endure any hardship for him.
       The man told of his former wife who had left him after he lost his job and couldn't find another. She was the type that needed 'things', and didn't want to stay with a man who couldn't provide them. The man told her he had just found a new job and was due to start the following week. Which was lucky because he had almost exhausted his savings while looking for work the past year. Snidely he remarked it was good his wife had left him or he wouldn't have been able to have held out for so long without a job.
       The man and the woman had found they had something in common. Ex-spouses who were only looking for the good times, and that they both were better off to be on their own. After they realized this, a silence took the room. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, it was the realization that there was a spark between them! They were looking at each other while the talked, but now averted their eyes in shyness.
       The man spoke first. He told her about finding the $5 in the street, and after meeting her on the steps, knowing it was her lost money he had found. He began to fumble an apology, but the woman stopped him saying there was no way he could have known about her situation, and that he had more than made up for it by the lengths he went to get the medicine. He smiled, feeling better than he had in months!
       They spent a few more hours getting to know each other until they realized how late it had become. He thanked her for the dinner and her hospitality. Walking to the door he paused. That day and evening had been the best of his life, he couldn't just let it end. So, with a bit of a stammer, he asked her if she would like to go out with him after he was settled in his job. The woman smiled enormously, and accepted his invitation. After exchanging phone numbers, he left for home.
       On returning home, he readied himself to go to sleep. Then lying in bed, with the darkness all around, he began to think, reviewing the day in his mind. He thought of the woman, her son, and how good it felt to be with her. Talking, laughing, and forgetting any troubles they had. He remembered how lucky he had felt to find the five dollars. When he found it he felt like it was going to be a good day after all. Now after meeting the woman, he thought how lucky he REALLY was! He felt like it could be the start of a new life, and how five dollars had made it all possible!