The Tin Can

It all started with a tin can. In that tin can, there was approximately $1200; mostly made up of ones, fives, and tens and an assortment of change. Nannette Himmelfarb was out in her backyard, which was really more like a sandbox, when she discovered that tin can.

She had been digging a hole for reasons she cannot recall, when the tip of her trowel had hit the can. At first she thought the clunk clunk was in her head or her hearing aid was malfunctioning, but soon realized that there was something in the ground. She stopped and started to dig it out with her bare hands and pulled it out.

Golly. She thought as she shook the can and heard something rattle in there. Wonder what it could be? She figured it be sand or some petrified beans in there, but never expected to find money. It was quite a surprise, really.

For someone that lived in a tiny bullet trailer in the middle of a desert on an old (alleged) atomic testing site, and rarely went anywhere or did anything; $1200 seemed like a lot. She had no idea what she'd use it for but took the tin can inside with her anyway. Just in case a rainy day would ever occur in the desert.

Soon after she took that tin can inside, that was when odd things started to happen. Not scary. Not bad. But odd.

Since Nannette's husband had died ten years before, she lived alone. Her children were long gone to (literally) greener pastures, and any pet she had would disappear into the night. So when she would be sitting in the living room slash kitchen slash bedroom and watch reruns of The Lucy Show, and it would sound like someone was walking around the trailer. In all honesty, it felt a little odd. Other times, she'd hear voices. That was a bit silly too, since she had no neighbors. However, anytime she'd experience these odd occurrences, she always had an explanation. She didn't believe in the paranormal. That was just plain silly.

These odd occurrences lasted for about a month when Nannette finally started to change her thinking. She'd had about enough of the kitchen cupboards squeaking, the trailer tipping as if someone was pacing back and forth, and the vultures and coyotes holding court around her trailer. Not only was it just plain annoying, she was getting sick of cleaning up all the droppings they so kindly left behind. She was beginning to think that perhaps there was some validity to the paranormal thing.

But what really did it, was when the tin can startled to rattle in the cupboard. It began with a scraping noise, then started to shake, rattle, and roll around the cupboard.

Oy vey! She thought. And started to get scared. Finally she quickly sprinted to the cupboard, snatched the tin can, and went outside. She was going to bury it as deep as she could. She didn't need $1200 that badly.

As the tin can was safely hidden several feet under the sand, Nannette began to feel much better. Satisfied, she headed back into her house and plopped herself in her armchair and turned on the tv. At that precise moment, the trailer started to creak and the cupboard doors were opening and closing like mad. This was clearly not normal. Pictures and other tchotkes were tossed about, and it the final straw when her treasured Hummel figurines were chucked at her head. Nannette ran out the trailer, screaming like a banshee. She ran as fast as she could away from her trailer, faster than any 60 year old woman with arthritis and wearing croc slippers on sand could.

Out of breath, Nannette stopped and turned around just in time to witness her home of 30 odd years blown to smithereens. But that wasn't odd. It also wasn't odd when the government quickly paid her full recovery of her losses in effort to keep her mouth shut about the "accidental" missile launch that went awry. No, what was odd was when she was driving toward her new home (in greener pastures) to be close to her children, she happened to look over to the passenger seat and noticed a particular tin can containing $1200.

Now, that, was odd.