The morning air hit with a sharp bite, the kind that steals your breath and makes the world feel alive and unforgiving. I stood at the window, coffee in hand, watching the driveway Marcus and Leo had cleared through yesterday’s snowstorm. For two kids with a broken shovel, they’d done an incredible job. Their determination lingered in my mind… until something small caught my eye.
A crumpled envelope, wedged in the storm door. My name scrawled across the front in shaky handwriting.
Inside were six dollars—and a note:
“Sir,
We came up $6 short for the battery.
We are very sorry.
We will pay you back every dollar we owe.
—Marcus and Leo”
I stared at it for a long moment. Six dollars. Not the money—it was the integrity. The kind of honesty most adults have traded for convenience. These boys owed me nothing, yet here they were, apologizing like they’d committed a crime.
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