The Hand That Giveth by Rakiya Galadima

Fall of 2007, at 3:25 pm, on a gloomy day, a beautiful, black girl in a pink woollen dress and a coffee brown sweater arrives at the busy Victoria Station from Brighton. As she awaits an interchange to Birmingham she discovers that she has lost her money. Confused, stranded without any money except a fiver, she is neither able to return to Brighton nor proceed on her journey. 

“I am just going to ask a couple of strangers for some money and catch the next train” she says to herself. 

To her utter dismay, no one stops to listen, they walk briskly past. She breaks down in tears. Moments later, she is calm enough to walk slowly to an ATM machine beside a coffee shop, even though she knows it, she still goes ahead to slot her card in, hoping for a miracle. Not a penny in her account. No units on her mobile phone to call a friend, no money in her account, her last hundred bucks misplaced. She wonders briefly if she is jinxed. As she stands there, a man walks up to her and asks for some change to get a cuppa.

 “Seriously?” She shakes her head in disbelief as she takes a closer look at him, he was very well-dressed for a beggar. 

Short and powerfully built, he wore a thick black knee-length coat over a bright green shirt and grey pants. We call them Corporate Beggars in Naija! Was he seriously asking for some coins? This dude doesn’t even realize I am stranded, but what the heck a fiver won’t even take me to the next street. Without a word, she heads to the coffee shop to get a cup of cappuccino. She hands it over to him silently. He thanks her as his face lights up. 

“You should get a cup for yourself”. He says to her as he takes a sip.

“I cannot afford another, 20 pence is all I have left”. She responds with a shrug.

“Unbelievable! No one gives me anything you know, all they do is take. I am impressed that you went all-out to get me cappuccino when all I wanted was 50 pence more to get some coffee. Thank you!”

“5 bucks wouldn’t do me any good so why hold on to it?” 

“To be honest, I saw you weeping moments ago and my heart melted, so I decided that I’d come over and make a pretty girl smile”. He says with a wink.

She looks at him with a mixture of curiousity and disgust. Disgust that having seen her weeping, he was now going to take advantage of her situation.

“My train’s already at the platform, I have to leave now but I must see you again beautiful”. He says as he grabs her hand and gives it a quick wet kiss. 

“I was going to get myself a birthday gift but heaven’s already sent me one. So, here!” 
He places something rolled and bound in her palm, then quickly scribbles something on the Stephen King novel she is holding and runs off.

She opens her palm and her eyes widens as she takes in the rolled 20 Pounds notes, about twenty of them. Her face breaks into a wide smile as she cranes her neck to catch a glimpse of him, but he is long gone. She opens the novel to see he had written a telephone number. Her heart starts to beat fast, a lot of questions running through her mind. Could he be a drug lord? A pimp? A 419 maybe? 

She couldn’t be bothered as she heads to the kiosk to purchase her ticket. O boy, did it feel like Christmas in September! 

Generosity is like a well, from which one always draws water because it never runs dry. Giving is like sowing a seed which becomes a tree, and which in turn produces thousands of other seeds. Some people say “I don’t have”. Well, they just never have! Remember your treasures will not accompany you to the grave, we all return to our maker as naked as we came. 

Give to someone today, no matter how small and you may have filled a void with just one little act of kindness.


PS:The gorgeous stranger later becomes a world famous footballer. Can you guess who?