Follow The Money

Back in grade school, we watched a film on the journey of a dollar. A camera crew followed a dollar around as it made its way through a little town from one business to the next, from one person to another. Starting with a boy spending the dollar for a toy, people paid bills, or got paid, deposited money in the bank, withdrew money, and bought things at the store. At the end of the movie, the dollar ended up right back with the little boy who had spent it that morning. The same dollar.

The purpose of the film was to teach us about the economy. It did that very well. But I wasn’t concerned with economics - I wanted to try out this idea that I could get the same dollar back later. So, I marked up a few dollar bills and spent them. And then I did some more. And then more.

I patiently waited for my dollar bills to return. And then not so patiently. I started going to the store, purposefully using five and ten dollar bills to get as many ones as I could in change. After a year or so, I decided the film had been faked - and I was never going to get any of my dollars back.

Then we moved to another town and being older, I forgot all about my little project. That is, until I went to the bank one day to cash my paycheck. The teller counted out the money, placing a single dollar on the top of the larger bills. I couldn’t believe what I saw! There on the bill was my name! (That was how I’d marked the bills - by writing my name on them. Apparently, I wanted to make it extremely easy for the government to determine who was defacing the currency).

It had taken more than eight years but my experiment had finally worked! I was pretty excited and hopeful that more of “my” money would show up. Nope. No such luck. And to make matters worse, though I put the dollar away to keep from spending it, I lost it.

Out of the hundred or so bills I marked, that’s the only one I ever got back. So, a little help would be appreciated. If you happen to see any dollars with my name, feel free to send them to me!

Bruce A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen books. Over My Dead Body, The Journey, and Miscarriage Of Justice, and other titles, are available as ebooks on Apple I-Pad®, Amazon Kindle®, Barnes & Noble Nook® and Sony Reader®, Kobo, Diesel Books, and Smashwords. His books are also available in print at most online retailers or at www.bruceabordersbooks.weebly.com. The popular Wynn Garrett Series Books are now available on Barnes And Noble® at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/?series_id=867526 See Bruce’s Smashwords Profile at www.smashwords.com/profile/view/BruceABorders #MiscarriageOfJustice #BruceABorders