Eventually, Dad accepted.
On the way home, I looked at him.
“Five thousand dollars.”
“Yes.”
“For finding a box.”
“For doing what I was supposed to do.”
I smiled.
“Maybe doing what you’re supposed to do has become rarer than it should be.”
Dad considered that.
“You shouldn’t do the right thing because you expect a reward.”
“I agree.”
“You do the right thing because it’s right.”
He paused.
“And sometimes good things happen.”
“Sometimes?”
“Sometimes.”
That evening, my phone rang.
Richard.
“Julie,” he said. “I want you to know that what Melissa said about your employment was inappropriate.”
I stayed silent.
“Your position here depends on your performance,” he continued. “And your performance has been excellent.”
“Thank you.”
There was a pause.
“Your father is very thorough.”
I glanced at Dad.
“Yes.”
“I underestimated how thorough.”
“I won’t again.”
After the call ended, Dad asked who it was.
“Richard.”
“And?”
“He said my job is safe.”
Dad nodded.
“I knew it would be.”
“How?”
“Because Richard is smart.”
He tapped the notebook resting on his dashboard.
“I knew the work was correct. I knew my records were complete. I knew the box wasn’t mine. And I knew I’d contacted the right people.”
He looked at me.
“If somebody tried to use something against me, there wasn’t much there for them to use.”
I smiled.
“That doesn’t put you in a powerful position.”
Dad shook his head.
“What does it put you in?”
“A clean one.”
We drove through the late-afternoon light.
I looked at Dad’s worn jacket, his aging truck, and the old notebook on the dashboard.
For twenty-nine years, he had built his reputation by doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.
He fixed what he was hired to fix.
He documented his work.
He didn’t take what wasn’t his.
He called the right people.
And when someone tried to avoid paying him while suggesting his daughter’s job could become part of the dispute, he didn’t threaten anyone.
He simply stood behind his work.
For twenty-two years, Tibor’s watches had remained buried beneath a swimming pool.
They weren’t gone.
They were waiting.
Waiting for a failing pipe.
Waiting for an unusual calcium deposit.
