The Midas Man

“Alms for the poor.”

No one ever pays them much attention, the line of beggars that line the street, hands cupped and heads bowed, clothes tattered and hair unruly.

I wasn’t an exception, I didn’t bat an eye when the beggars cried out for change or when they got up and tried to block me, begging for money to live. I pushed them aside and kept my head down as I went on my way.

Then I met the Midas Man.

He was a strange beggar, for he wore a suit and tie and walked in fine leather shoes with a cane swinging at his side. He had no home but the street and only one meal a day, yet he was always the happiest man in the town, sauntering with swagger in his step and asked everybody the same question. Do you want to be a rich man?

I’d heard the stories of him, some said if you paid his fee of ten dollars then your coat would be filled with money, or you’d find gold ingots in your house. Then there were even more stories on how he was a scam who had cheated hundreds of people, crazy enough to buy himself a suit but not to buy himself food. But there was one thing they all agreed on, he was a happy man.

I was going through a rough day that day, I’d been denied a promotion and had gotten into a row with my wife over it. Bad idea, now I was walking the streets kicking loose stones off the pavement.

It was late, almost midnight, and as I passed the flickering streetlight I realised that half dead lamp represented me perfectly. Struggling to stay afloat, barely enough money to keep my family alive. We might have to sell our apartment soon, I’d been counting on the promotion to buy us a few more months.

I passed the line of beggars, wondering how long it’s be till I ended up like one of them, hands outstretched and begging for money. Most of them were asleep by now, curled up in their thin blankets and among discarded trash for warmth, but a few still stretched out their hands and moaned quietly for money.

Then came the clacking of fine shoes, the sound of a cane striking the pavement. A dark figure swaggered up the street, he saluted me as he neared, “Hey there! Rather late to be out and about, wouldn’t you say?”

He stepped under the flickering street lamp and I immediately recognised him as the Midas Man, an ageless man with shadowy eyes and a thin moustache and goatee which framed a permanent smirk. His cheeks were sunken from hunger and his frame slight and frail but that didn’t faze his smile. I rolled my eyes and kept my head down, meaning to walk around him. But he stopped in front of me and held his cane out calmly, blocking my path. He smirked and asked, “Where might you be going?”

“Anywhere but here,” I growled and tried to push his cane away.

He didn’t let it fall away, grinning as he exclaimed, “What? But ‘here’ is where fortunes are to be made! Don’t you want to be a rich man? Don't you want to be a happy man, like me!”

“I want you out of my face!”

He raised his polished cane and jabbed its worn end into my chest, grinning. “That’s the last thing you want, friend.”

I was about to say something else when he spoke again, “Ten dollars and you’ll find yourself the richest man in the world! Ten dollars and you’ll profit a hundred thousand times over!”

Scowling, I tried to sidestep him but he jabbed me in the chest again. “I would say, my friend, that you really need the fortune.”

He was right, just to humour him I checked my wallet knowing it’d be empty, I’d spent my last coin at the pub buying something to dull the shame. The words were already rolling off my lips, “Sorry, friend, but I’m all out of today, real sorr-”

There was something resting at the bottom of my wallet, a tiny slip of wadded up paper. A crumpled up ‘10’ was clearly visible on it.

The Midas Man craned his neck to look over and exclaimed, “Well would you look at that! Ten dollars, just enough!”

I furrowed my brows in confusion. I’d spent my last gram of coin and money, I was sure of it. I remember shaking my wallet upside down to find money to pay my latest bottle of alcohol and how nothing came out.

“So what d’ya say, mate? Untold riches for just ten dollars?”

Perhaps I felt a bit sad for this man, a handsome fellow but mad as a march hare, crazy enough to buy expensive suits with the money he earned but not enough food to live healthy. I smoothed out the creases in the note and handed it to him, muttering, “Buy yourself something to eat.”

He slipped the note into his suit but didn’t let me pass, raising an eyebrow. “Wait just a moment there young man, you need to know where to find this fortune!”

I sighed in exasperation and stepped back, rubbing my brows and gesturing for him to continue. “Get it over with then.”

He rubbed his goatee for a moment, before his eyes lit up. He pointed down the street with his cane and smirked, “You’ve already got treasure waiting for you! Just take a left down the next junction and at the seventh building knock the door twice… twice mind you, and the first thing you’ll see when the door opens is enough riches to make a dead man happy!”

I highly doubt it, but I didn’t voice it out. I waited patiently, before asking, “Done?”

“Done,” he concluded, bowing and sliding to one side, gesturing for me to continue. “Remember my instructions, friend! Hope your fortune makes you happy!”

Scowling as I walked away and the Midas Man disappeared into the dark, damn idiot, I knew what the building he was talking about was. I turned a left corner at the first junction I came to and shuffled down the streets lined with familiar houses, ticking off the numbers instinctively. 1…2…3…4…

At the seventh I turned in took the first step up the porch, rather apprehensive. This was where the Midas Man had directed me but that wasn’t why I’d come here, I came here because this was my home.

Exhaling, I crept up the last few steps silently, standing before the door. There weren’t any lights in the windows, no sounds coming out.

I held a clenched fist over the door, looking away and fearing the fury that would come out to greet me. Then I knocked, then again.

My third knock was about to fall when the door was swung open so fast I jerked back as a woman stood there, framed in the doorway. Her appearance had changed radically from when I’d last seen her today, her hair was now messy and tangled, he eyes were puffy and her cheeks were raw where’d she rubbed the tears off.

She glared at me and I didn’t dare to look up from my shoes, mumbling, “So… uh… I just… wanted… to uh…”

As I looked down she lunged at me and gripped me in a vice hug so tight I was sure my arms broke right there, her tears soaking into my jacket. She hacked out between sobs, “Oh God, you’re finally back!”

It had only been a few hours but we hadn’t parted on the best of terms, in fact she had been screaming at me to get my worthless self out of the place, but now it was all gone.

As I guided her back into the house I closed the door quietly, then remembered the Midas Man’s words. Two knocks, my third hadn’t touched the wood.

I looked around just to be safe, but there wasn’t any gold ingots, no money.

Then there was a clattering from the kitchen. I looked down the hallway and saw my wife at the table with her back to me, several tubs of empty ice cream around her, some with bottoms filled with mysterious melted ice cream.

I crossed over to her and wrapped my arms around her, laying my head against her back and listening to her beating heart. Perhaps that crazy beggar had meant riches of another kind.