Diamonds and Toads, Aliza Faber

I gave an old woman two dollars,
Meant for my morning coffee,
And then handed her my coat,
For spring is coming,
But she looked so cold,
Standing in her rags on the corner of the street.

She looked at me and whispered;

“You have a good heart,

May God bless you.”

We both smiled,

And I went on my way.

In the evening after work,

It was cold,

So I bought a coat,

at a second-hand store.

When she saw it,

My aging mother cried;

“We aren’t made of money!”

Later, I discovered,

Five hundred dollar bills,

Stashed in the pocket,

Of my new old coat.

The next day I got a promotion,

It came with a raise,

And my mother was delighted.

In the coming weeks,

I found;

Two hundred dollars on the streets,

A winning lottery ticket forgotten on a bus seat,

And a diamond earing,

Strewn on the floor,

By a bench where I sat.

Before a month had gone by,

A distant relative passed away,

Leaving us a house,

Along with a small fortune,

And we gladly moved,

As fast as we could,

From the two-bedroom apartment,

We had called our home,

And lived like kings.

Late for work,

I pushed passed an old woman,

Knocking over her cup of coins,

And hurried along,

Barely noticing,

The familiar shape of her coat,

Or hearing the words,

That chased me down the street;

“Damn you.”

I lost my job,

By the end of the week,

And when I came home,

I found the big house,

Overridden with pests,

Roaches and rats and toads.

My wallet fell,

As I sat on the bus,

Those who found it,

Emptied my account,

And when I finally went,

To exchange the diamond earring,

I was told it was worth,

Nothing more,

Than shining plastic.

Aliza loves reading, writing and anything to do with fairy tales. She hopes one day she will have enough time to continue introducing less well known fairy tales on her blog taleaday.blogspot.com.

Art by Amanda Bergloff.