I Got Rich Because I Picked Up a Rock On The Beach!

The sea was lapping at the sand and I could hear the waves roaring as they hit the shore. Birds tweeted and called around me while I walked down the beach on that warm, sunny morning. Everything was peaceful and tranquil as it always was when I took my early morning walk. Until suddenly it wasn’t! When I bent down to pick up a pretty piece of coral, my golden retriever named Rufus suddenly flew forward, snatching his lead out of my hand as he bolted ahead of me. I called his name so many times, but he didn’t come back! All of a sudden, he stopped and started staring down at something in the sand. He was snuffling and moving pebbles around with his nose. Then he started barking loudly and I was totally lost. I didn’t understand why my dog was barking like a mad man!
I pinched myself just to check if I was dreaming since it seemed totally bizarre. Rufus was usually such a good boy, I didn’t understand why he was disobeying me all of a sudden! It wasn’t like this was an unusual thing for us to do, we went to the beach twice a day for walks every day! We would always walk down the sand together while I collected any pretty shells I found along the way.
You see, I did this because my mom and I were desperate for any extra cash we could get. So, I started to make jewelry which I would then sell at the local market every Sunday. But we were already almost finished with our walk and I’d barely found anything good enough to use for that yet. It was really disappointing and I didn’t have time to deal with whatever issue Rufus suddenly decided to have!
So, I ran forward and grabbed him by the collar. “What the hell, Rufus?” I asked before I looked down and noticed why he was acting so freaky.
There was something huge poking out from the sand that Rufus had dug up. At first, I just wanted to pull him away and go home because it stunk so bad! It was like vomit mixed with garbage. I had to pinch my nose to keep me from barfing.
“Come on, Rufus, let’s go,” I told him as I tried to tug him away again. But he wouldn’t budge!
I sighed and shook my head. I moved away from the awful smell and decided to just let him have his fun and take him back once he got bored, but as time went on, Rufus didn’t give up and I really, really wanted to get home.
“Fine, you win!” I told him as I walked back over to him. I decided to take it home with us so that Rufus could play with it and I could get back and get on with my homework. So, I took off my jacket and wrapped up the awful-smelling rock. It was stupidly heavy though and I could barely lift it, but eventually, I managed to tuck it into my bag.
As soon as Rufus saw that I had the mysterious gray thing, he ran up to me and finally, I was able to get him home!
I didn’t think too much about the rock after that. I stuck it out in our backyard where Rufus continued to sniff it and try to play with it for the rest of the day, but after that, it was pretty much gone from my head. It didn’t help that I had far worse things to worry about.
Because six months earlier my dad had left my mom for another woman. He moved across the country and we hadn’t heard from him since! My mom and I couldn’t really afford the rent on my childhood home, so we were selling everything we owned to try and get the money every month. But we were running out of things to sell…
The day after Rufus and I found that strange rock on the beach, my mom showed me a letter that made my blood run cold. It was an eviction notice. I couldn’t believe it. My heart felt like it shattered into a million pieces. Not only had I lost my father, but now, I was losing my home. My whole world felt like it was falling apart!
Everything happened so quickly then. My mom and I had to pack up the little belongings we had left and found a shelter that had room to take us in. I know it seems stupid, but I brought the rock with me since my dog had been so fond of it! So all I had left in the world was my mom, my dog, some clothes, and this stupid rock!
The shelter wasn’t exactly amazing, but it was nice to have a roof over our heads and somewhere comfortable to sleep. It beat sleeping on the streets, that’s for sure. The people there were super weird though. A lot of them clearly had mental health problems that they weren’t getting any help for. Sometimes, I woke up in the night to hear them screaming.
But one day, an old man with a horrible cough stumbled into our room in the morning and stood there just staring down at my dog. I was super freaked out and cuddled up to my mom, waiting for him to leave, but he didn’t.
“What are you staring at?” I asked him.
He pointed down at the rock my dog was curled up with.
I couldn’t believe that was what he was looking at. It was so stupid. I laughed. As a joke, I asked if he wanted to buy it from me. Straight away, the man’s eyes lit up and he started nodding. I thought he was just another crazy homeless guy, so I laughed and my mom did too, until he started getting angry at us.