A Fortune
Essay
The short story ”A Fortune” is written by Joy Monica T. Sakaguchi and was published in the year of 2000. It tells the story of a man who is pick pocketing and then discovers a little boy wandering the streets alone. This is the same boy, whose father’s wallet he stole just an hour earlier. When taking the boy back to his house, the narrator feels an urge to let the kid know what he is worth.
The narrator of the text is a young man, maybe in his mid-twenties. He is the only son of the stinking, rotting, “loud-of-a-man”. Well at least according to his mother, the lady with a black wig, using most of her time crying, because she fears the narrator will grow up and be like his father.
Growing up in a trailer park, the family didn’t have a lot of money. This is one of the reasons for his father teaching him pick pocketing in the age of five. This pick pocketing is still a part of his life, even after his old man left town without leaving a note or a phone call. The reason for him still pick pocketing lies in the hope he has, of his father someday returning:
“One day Pop will show up again. I’ll hand him the boxful of money, he will throw me some bills, and then I’ll just stow them away without counting them. That’s what I think.” (Line 31)
It’s not that he needs the money. In fact he has a job. But he is longing for the recognition from his father. As he says himself, when arguing why he didn’t ever count the money his dad gave him:
“I just didn’t want to know how much Pop thought I was worth.” (Line 13)
When working his job, he earns enough money to take Sundays of. It’s not to go to church, but to recharge his batteries. Not being religious is something he learned in his childhood. His uncle Barney used to come around dressed like Santa, only to lose his beard and ask for at stiff drink. That taught him to be realistic, only to believe in what you can see yourself.
Though not having had the most love full childhood, he still loves his mother:
“I have to give her credit for trying to make me an honest boy.” (Line 15)
He still visits her at the trailer park, reading the notes from fortune cookies aloud to her. When speaking of the fortune cookies, these play a big part in his life.
He always saves them, after eating a low-price dinner at the Chinese restaurant. As he says:
“I love those stupid fortune cookies.” (Line 38)
When using “love” and “stupid” in the same line, he contradicts himself. The fortune notes inside the cookie are stupid, it’s such a small thing, and the fortune usually doesn’t come true. But he loves them, because when they tell him things like “love and happiness will be yours in abundance” it’s something he has never heard before, it’s something he hopes will come true. These fortune notes tell him everything he has longed hearing from his parents, the loving things they never told him.
When seeing the little boy at the market, he reminds him of himself. The boy is about seven years old, following his father, just like the narrator at the age of five used to follow his father when they would go pick pocketing. When he sees the boy standing all alone in the street, he feels forced to take care of him:
“I don’t know what compelled me, but my feet just sort of walked over to him before I told them to. […]”Hey, kid, you lost?” […] “Do you want to come with me?” I heard myself talking and I swear I sounded like a stinking kidnapper. I’ve never had a problem with stealing wallets, but stealing lost kids is out of my territory. It’s just that, it must be nice, you know, to be found” (Line 75)
He feels a connection to the boy, which express itself in the last line. When saying it must be nice to be found, the narrator is no longer talking about the boy. He is talking about himself, and how he is longing to be found by his father. To be found, and being told that he is loved.
When taking the boy to his house, the similarity between the two gets stronger. At first the narrator doesn’t quite know what to do with the boy. But because of his loneliness, it’s nice to have some company. He chooses to show his collection of fortune notes to the boy, and the two of them are having a blast.
The narrator never cries. But this boy touches something in him. When looking at his lop-sided smile, he gets all emotional. He has already given the boy a fortune note saying “time is of the essence, use it wisely,” when choosing to give all his fortune notes to the boy. Why? Here’s why:
““I mean it, kid. I want you to have my fortunes. You know why? You deserve it, kid, you earned it.” […] “Here it says, ‘Long life will be yours.’ I want you to have that one especially, because you deserve a long life.”” (Line 116)
The narrator puts on the role of fatherhood, making sure that this kid, opposite to himself, knows what he is worth and that he is deserves to have a good, long life. He is telling the boy the things that the father is supposed to tell him.
By telling the boy what he is worth, he states the fact, that the boy is a fortune in himself - hence the title. His father is a lucky man, and he doesn’t appreciate it. If he did, he wouldn’t have yelled harshly at the kid when they were at the market.
The text is build up as a flashback at first. The narrator is looking back at when he first saw the boy, then going on telling about his old childhood. When he’s done telling about himself, he returns to the story:
“Like I said, it was a Sunday when I saw this man and his son…” (Line 34)
It goes on chronologically from here on, and the story ends sudden when the narrator has dropped the boy of at his house. The narrator is a 1. Person narrator, not knowing how other people know or think. By this kind of narrator, we focus on the narrator himself, although the main event of the story is the little boy.
As fortunes being the main theme of the text, there’s no talk about fortunes as a materialistic thing, but the fact that everyone is a fortune in themselves. But people aren’t told, and it hurts the most when not hearing it from one’s parents:
“That guy didn’t need his credit cards or cash or eelskin wallet. He didn’t know what a fortune he had anyway.”(Line 159)
Before meeting the boy, the narrator got a fortune cookie that said: “A change in your daily routine will lead you to treasure.” When telling the boy what he is worth, he immediately feels better with himself. The message of the text comes as a result of this: It’s important to tell people what they’re worth, no matter if they are rich or poor, leaving them happy and leaving you as feeling like a good person.