• 6:30 a.m.: Run to Winco to buy Capri Suns you promisedpromisedpromised your daughter that, before you went to bed last night, you’d go get for her class party today.  (You forgot.  You went to bed.)  While at Winco, pick up a big, sugary bag of Tootie Frooties as a Happy Friday treat for the kids.  Return home at 7:00 am.  Kids are thrilled with big sugary bag.

• 8:00 am:  Discover that your wallet is missing.  Try not to freak out.  Call Winco – nothing.  Search the house – nothing.  Call Hub at work–maybe he grabbed it this morning for some reason?–nothing.  Look in the car, outside, the kids’ rooms, the grocery bags, the kitchen cupboards, under the beds, couches, the car again–nothing nothing nothing.  At 8:30, you remember that you put an unusually large wad of cash in said wallet,  just last night, to pay for a few things this weekend.  Start to really freak out.  Call Winco again – surely someone has turned it in by now?  Winco checks all registers, parking lots, restrooms.  Sorry.  Nothing.

•  9:30 am:  After another hour of hunting, have a sudden thought to drive to Winco anyway.  Pull into the lot and park by the line of carts you used earlier.  Look down the mile of carts and see, about a dozen carts down, a little flash of red.  Upon closer inspection find that you did, in fact, leave your wallet in the cart at Winco and, though multiple shoppers had obviously been there since you, it remained untouched.  Open wallet to find unusually large wad of cash intact.  Bursting, you giddily tell the old man nearby who’s smoking a cigarette by his car–and whom you’ve never seen before–the whole story.  Smile when he shakes his head and replies, “Now that’s a miracle, ma’am.  If you believe in God, you should thank Him now.”

And you do.