“One million dollars, Mr. R.! Why would you ever bring one million dollars to school?” asked Larissa.
“Where did you even get one million dollars from?” asked Jake.
“Well, it’s not really mine,” I said.
“You stole one million dollars!” yelled José.
“No, I didn’t steal anything!”
“I was walking my dog this morning and he dragged me over to a mysterious box he must have sniffed. I opened the box, and I saw all of those bills wrapped in that purple paper. I was in a rush and didn’t count it. I was going to turn it in to the police station later.”
“Sure you were Mr. R., sure you were!” said Jenna.
“I was!”
The ceiling people were now doing a big cha-cha dance to celebrate finding one million dollars.
“You can’t take that money, I yelled, “I have to return it to its rightful owner!”
But they ignored me as they signaled to a friend who was still up in the ceiling, and she let down another red rope. They climbed back up and disappeared into the ceiling with the $1 million dollars.
The panel on the ceiling closed and we stood there looking, still frozen in place.
“What do we do now?” asked Matthew.
“I guess we wait until we can move again,” I said,
“What if it never wears off and we’re frozen here for the rest of our lives!” yelled Larissa.
“It will wear off,” I assured, “Nothing lasts forever.”
It wasn’t until after recess time that we started to be able to move again.
“Wow, this feels much better,” I said, as we all began walking around the room and stretching our arms and legs.
“What are you going to do about the one million dollars, Mr. R.?” asked Jenna.
“I guess, after school, I’ll have to go up into the ceiling to get it back. I do have to turn it in to the police.”
“Or you can buy us one million dollars worth of ice cream!” said Matthew.
If ice cream is on sale for $4.29 pint, how many pints could you buy if you have $20 (you want to buy the most ice cream possible). How much change would you get?
Your results
Later that afternoon, when all the students left for home, I got up on the desk and tried to open the panel in the ceiling where the red rope had been attached. It wouldn’t move at all. I banged on the panel, shouting at the ceiling people to open up and give me back the money, but nobody responded.
I climbed back down wondering what I was going to do, when I noticed the purple sheet of paper on the floor.
It was the paper the million dollars had been wrapped in. I unfolded it and read what it said.
Whoever found this box has solved the mystery of my hidden treasure. You have done good work to find it. Be sure to use it well, and for good causes.
The Anonymous Millionaire
THE END
