kindness: lost & found

During the winter of the year I lived in Arizona, my dad came out to Sedona, and to visit with me for a week. I had a long weekend one of the weekends he was there, so I drove up to Sedona with him. Because there is little else do to in Sedona other than walk around with jaws open gazing at the majestic red rocks, you shop. And shop we did.

Most of the shopping is art galleries and tourist traps. In one such place, while my dad searched for post cards, I found a small pair of turquoise earrings, bezel set in sterling silver. They had no marbling, just pure turquoise, and they were beautiful. I himmed and hawwed over whether to buy them (and honestly, I'm not sure why I didn't, because I don't think they were more than like $20), and eventually decided against it.

I left Sedona and for the following week, all I could think about was those earrings. I almost called my dad, who was still up there, to see if he could go back and get them for me, but ultimately decided against it, again.

The following Saturday I met my dad for lunch before his plane took off, and he handed me a small bag, and in it were those earrings. He had gone back to get them for me. Which is something very out-of-character for my dad. Which is not to say he isn't a kind person, but this is not usually how he shows his kindness.

Since then, I have more or less worn those earrings every day. I adore them. They seem to go with everything, and they're stunning (or so I think).

So imagine the devastation (which right now, doesn't even seem like a strong enough word) I felt when I realized on Wednesday that one of my earrings was missing. We had been to the pool that afternoon, and I was certain it was somewhere there at the pool, never to be found again.

I figured it was either where we sat, and it had fallen off when I was taking my shirt off; or, it was at the bottom of the diving well. I feared the latter.

On Thursday morning my sister got up early, threw on some clothes and took M with her to look around the pool deck. The staff was less than helpful, and that sick feeling in my stomach kept growing. It knew it was gone forever.

When we went to the pool Thursday afternoon, in order to occupy M during the 15 minute rest period that occurs every hour, K and I would dive off of the diving boards. I was hoping, as I stood at the end of the board that I would see a small glint at the bottom of the pool, and know I had found my earring. No luck.

Until a young man, probably 18 or 19, did an amazing 1.5 flip dive, and lost a gauge in his ear. He ran back to his belongings, grabbed a pair of goggles, and dove down to the bottom of the pool. When he came back up for air once, I asked him, if he happened to see a small turquoise earring, if he would grab it.

It only took him a minute to find his gauge, but insisted on continuing to look for my earring. After a few tries, he did. My earring had been found!

I tried to give him a few dollars for his hard work, but he refused over and over again.

How kind of him to have gone to look for a stranger's earring, and then refuse a reward. I was so impressed by him, when most of the kids his age (and who look like him, gauges and tattoos abounding) to have done something so kind of a stranger.