Generous with Others’ Money
GENEROUS WITH OTHERS’ MONEY – July 27, 2024 – Stockton, California, USA
He was only twelve, but Maverick Kelce held an oversized presence in his neighborhood. He was big-boned and tall for his age. He spit a lot and swore a lot and wore classic heavy-metal concert T-shirts. His preferred hair style was the Mohawk.
To their mothers’ dismay, younger kids gravitated toward Maverick and he liked leading packs of them around. Whenever a pet or package was missed, a flowerbed disturbed, or a naughty word written on a fence with magic marker, Maverick got the blame. While many of the neighborhood tweenagers were allowed to freely ride their bikes to friends’ homes and nearby parks, they were warned to stay away from Maverick.
Brady Wilson’s mom was one of the paranoids. When her son returned from an afternoon excursion and talked excitedly about going to a rodeo with Maverick, she quickly shut him down.
“But Mom, it’s the last weekend of the summer. We want to have some fun before school starts.”
“Tell me again who’s going.”
Brady recited a list of names. When he got to Maverick, he noticed his mom’s face twitch. After he was done with his list, she made up reasons he could not got but she avoided mentioning Maverick specifically. According to her, the rodeo sounded crowded and sketchy and too far away.
“Besides, we’re going to have a big celebration for your birthday the following weekend. No need to go to a rodeo.”
Brady tried to argue, but his mom dug in. Before he knew it, she declared, “there’s absolutely no way you’re going to that rodeo.”
The next day, when Brady gathered with a collection of boys at a nearby culvert, Maverick arrived and asked who was joining him at the rodeo.
“My mom won’t let me,” Brady admitted.
“Mine won’t either,” everyone else added.
“I can’t believe you do everything your moms say,” Brady said in a taunting voice. “Just tell them you’re going to the library or something and then come to the rodeo.”
“My mom tracks my phone,” Brady replied in a defeated way. The other boys reported they were under the same kind of surveillance.
“So what?” Maverick barked dismissively. “Here’s what you do. Tell her you’re going to the movies. The theater with the climbing wall next to it. Then stick your phone in one of the climbing wall lockers and head to the rodeo.”
At first, Brady did not like the idea of deceiving his mom and risking being discovered. But as Maverick and the other boys joked about it, the idea became daring and kind of a right-of-passage. Maverick said it would prove they were not lame and weak. He also used a bunch of other words Brady was not supposed to say.
“I’m going to the movies with my friends tomorrow,” Brady announced to his mom.
“Which friends?”
He was careful not to list Maverick.
“Which movie theater?”
“The one next to the climbing wall. You let me ride my bike there before.”
“Okay, but only to the movie and come right back.”
Brady nodded innocently and told himself the little story was no big deal. He pedaled off the next day expecting to meet a bunch of his other friends at their designated rendezvous spot. The only one there was Maverick.
“Where is everybody?” Brady asked.
“They chickened out. It’s just you and me.”
“Maybe we should wait a little longer.”
“I’m tired of waiting.”
Brady followed Maverick along the street and sidewalk until they reached the theater. Brady figured there was no going back, so he left his phone in a climbing wall locker like Maverick plotted.
“She’ll think you’re here the whole time,” Maverick said with a self-congratulating laugh. “Now let’s go.”
The site for the rodeo was around a mile from the theater. A traveling carnival and midway were set up on the asphalt surrounding the arena. Food trucks were parked in a haphazard lineup adjacent to the carnival rides. Display booths, under shade canopies and sponsored by local businesses, intermingled with the food trucks.
After locking their bikes to a fence, Brady stayed close to Maverick as he weaved between people waiting for food or strolling past tables of arts and crafts for sale. Maverick stopped at a jeweler’s display advertising a giveaway for a $5000 watch. Anyone could write their name down and collect a ticket to be entered into a drawing. The boys admired the shiny, silver watch inside a plexiglass case before claiming tickets of their own.
Maverick moved to another canopy where he found someone offering temporary tattoos for three dollars. He sat while someone drew a snake on his arm and he encouraged Brady to do the same.
“I better not. My mom will see and want to know where I got it.”
Satisfied with his snake, Maverick walked to the booth selling carnival ride tickets. “These are way too expensive,” he said to Brady. Then he got caught sneaking into the fun house and jumping the fence to skip the line for the gigantic slide.
“Let’s get some corn,” Maverick insisted. He and Brady paid for cobs of roasted corn and poured mounds of free parmesan cheese over the top. Then Maverick begged the corn-selling lady for an extra cob before she shooed him away.
Like the carnival rides, tickets to the actual rodeo were too expensive. Instead, Maverick led the way to the back of the arena where the horses and cows were kept. He and Brady pestered the one-ton bulls by whistling and banging on metal railings. When Maverick mooned an especially angry bull, a grizzled cowboy noticed and moseyed over to warn him to stop.
“Showing a target like that is a good way to get yourself gored. Why don’t you boys go cause trouble someplace else?”
“C’mon, let’s go and see if we won the watch,” Maverick said to Brady.
They strolled back through the carnival and pop-up shades and arrived in time to join a crowd surrounding the jeweler’s booth. Someone stood on a platform spinning a transparent drum holding hundreds of tickets. A woman reached into the drum, pulled one out, and dramatically shouted the number 662140.
Brady looked down at his ticket. “That’s mine!” he shouted to Maverick. “Look, I’m 662140.”
After a quick confirmation glance, Maverick yelled toward the ticket woman, “We got it right here! Here’s the winner!”
Brady squeezed through the crowd holding up his ticket. When the jewelry people saw him, they were obviously disappointed he was so young. But they eventually confirmed the ticket and reverently handed Brady the watch.
“That’s the nicest watch I’ve ever seen!” Maverick cried as Brady draped it loosely around his wrist. “It’s worth $5000! You’re rich!”
Brady proudly held his arm up at chest height and kept his eyes on the watch as the boys returned to their bikes for the trip home. It was not until Brady retrieved his phone from the climbing wall locker that he realized he could not simply show up at home with a $5000 watch. His mom would demand to know where he got it. Even if it was worth a lot of money, she would never overlook the fact he had deceived her to be at the rodeo to win it. How was he ever going to keep it without revealing his Maverick adventure?
A simple and brilliant plan hit Brady as he reached the outskirts of his neighborhood. He turned to Maverick and asked, “Can you do something for me? If I invite you to my birthday party next week, can you give me this watch for a present?”
“Why would I do that?”
“So I won’t have to explain I got it at the rodeo.”
Maverick chuckled at the idea. “What’s in it for me?”
“You’ll get to come to my party. We’re going to the go kart track.”
That was enough of a reason for Maverick. Brady handed him the watch with instructions to wrap it like a present and show up at his house next weekend. Maverick assured him he would play along. Brady returned home and told his mom he had rewatched a movie he had already seen, in case she quizzed him for details.
Two days later, Brady asked if Maverick could attend his upcoming party. His mom fought the idea but finally relented after Brady endlessly begged and reminded her, “It’s my party, I should get to invite who I want.”
On the afternoon of the big event, Maverick showed up right on time with a neatly wrapped box. His Mohawk haircut appeared trimmed or even combed. There were no offensive words or images on his T-shirt. He called Brady’s mom “ma’am” as he rode in her minivan to the go kart track. While he was there, he drove politely and congratulated other drivers on their fast lap times.
The party returned to Brady’s house where he blew out candles on a cake and opened presents. One of the first was from an out-of-state uncle who liked to show off his wealth. Brady unwrapped a new electric bike and his friends jealously gasped.
“Oh wow! I wish I had a bike like that!” Maverick called. “I don’t know anyone rich enough to buy one for me. All I’ve got is a regular old bike my mom found.”
Maverick continued praising the electric bike. The partygoers were so eager to try it, Brady almost forgot about the rest of his presents. He quickly tore through them until he came to the last one – the wrapped box from Maverick. When he removed the wrapping and opened the box flaps, Brady did his best to look surprised after seeing the watch.
“A watch! This is really nice.”
“I wanted to give you something good to thank you for inviting me to the party,” Maverick said loudly. He continued selling the idea that Brady was a good friend by sharing an almost touching story of how Brady gave him part of his lunch when he arrived at school with nothing to eat. Brady grinned uncomfortably and tried signaling to Maverick that he should stop laying it on so thick.
With all presents opened, invited guests hurried outside to try out the new electric bike. The $5000 watch was left on the table where Brady’s mom picked it up for a closer look. She recognized the brand and did a quick internet search to discover it was a Breitling Navitimer valued right around $5000. She turned the watch over, looking for signs it was a fake or possibly damaged, but everything looked just like the online picture.
Brady’s mom walked out to the street where boys took turns riding the birthday bike. She pulled Maverick aside and whispered to him, “Do you know how expensive that watch is?”
“Like $5000,” Maverick answered nonchalantly.
“Where did you get it? It’s too expensive to give away for a birthday present.”
“I won it at a carnival. I don’t like wearing watches but I thought Brady would want it. He’s kind of my best friend. I would do anything for him. Thanks for letting me come to his party. I know some moms don’t like me very much.”
Brady’s mom edged slowly away feeling stunned. Maverick’s story sounded too outlandish to be true, so she called his mother for confirmation.
“Thank you for inviting him to Brady’s birthday. He doesn’t get a lot of chances like that,” Maverick’s mom said almost immediately.
“Our pleasure. Your son gave Brady a really expensive watch. He said he won it.”
“Yeah, that’s true. He came home with it last week. But he’s not interested in things like watches. He’s more into things with wheels. Like bikes.”
“Well, it’s very generous for him to give the watch away.”
“He didn’t give it a second thought. He’s just hoping Brady can come to his birthday next weekend.”
“Of course. I’ll make sure he’s there.”
As Brady’s mom hung up the phone, guilt froze her body from head to toe. It was easily one of her top three guilty moments. She felt horrible for judging Maverick so harshly. He could be rough around the edges sometimes, but he obviously had a good, sweet heart. She had witnessed how polite and thoughtful he could be in the right surroundings.
While Brady’s mom promised herself she would do something special to help Maverick, Brady collected his gifts and shoved most of them into his room. He put the watch on his dresser. He knew it was valuable and nice to own. He would probably use it someday. It was like having a chunk of gold you could admire without actually doing anything with it. By comparison, the electric bike was very different. He would use it every day to speed anywhere he wanted. He loved the feeling of acceleration when he cranked the throttle. The bike made him the envy of the neighborhood.
After concentrating that night, Brady’s mom finally realized what she needed to do to help Maverick. She found Brady in his room and began outlining her plan. “I talked with Maverick’s mom earlier. He’s having a birthday next week. She invited you over for the party.”
“Okay,” Brady replied, wondering why his mom sounded so serious.
“Do you have any idea how much that watch he gave you costs?”
Brady shrugged his shoulders.
“A lot of money. Way more than the rest of your presents combined. I didn’t realize he was so generous. Deep down, he’s a very good boy, but I don’t think he gets the support and structure he needs at home. I think you should do something extra nice for his birthday.”
“Okay. Like what?”
“Give him a great present. Like your electric bike. He really admired it.”
“I don’t have money to buy him a bike.”
“No, I mean give him the one you got from your uncle.”
Brady’s jaw dropped. “My bike? No way! That’s way too valuable!”
“Not nearly as valuable as the watch and Maverick didn’t think twice about giving it to you.”
Brady stammered, opening and closing his mouth like a fish with no words coming out. It was too late to explain away the watch by admitting he had been at the rodeo. And the more he resisted, the more his mom insisted the bike go to Maverick.
A week later, it felt like a bad dream as Brady wheeled the bike over to Maverick’s house. His mom walked proudly beside him, talking about the difference it would make in Maverick’s life. They knocked on the door and when Maverick answered, there was no visible signs of a party inside.
“Happy Birthday!” Brady’s mom called. “We want to give you this as a present.”
Maverick’s eyes lit up gratefully and he raved about Brady as a friend. A tiny tear even trickled down his cheek. Brady’s mom left her son to celebrate and floated home feeling very pleased with herself.
“I really like your mom,” Maverick said to Brady with a smirk.
Brady dropped his head to his chest. “How about a trade? You can have the watch and I’ll take the bike back.”
“I don’t think your mom would understand. And what am I gonna do with a watch? I’m gonna ride this bike everywhere.”
“C’mon, the watch is worth a lot more.”
Maverick grinned cleverly. “Why don’t you go get it. You can time how long it takes me to ride down the street and back.”
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