Davinder Ranu

He lost his wallet that night. He found his person.

Movie & Wallet

A man with no name loses his wallet in a movie theatre. He doesn’t realize it until the next morning. The night before, he had walked home thinking about the film — not about money, not about cards, not about identification. Just the movie. He falls asleep. Wakes up. Checks his pocket.

Empty.

His stomach drops. He rushes back to the theatre, hoping someone turned it in.

The place is nearly empty. And then he sees her. The same woman who sat two rows ahead of him during the movie. She’s still there. She remembers him. “You were laughing at the wrong parts,” she says. He smiles. “You were crying at the wrong parts. ”She offers to help him look. They search under seats, near the popcorn stand, around the ticket counter. No wallet. But somehow, neither of them seems in a hurry to leave. The theatre café is still open.

They get coffee. It’s late. Too late for strangers to talk the way they do. But they do anyway. About the movie. About the ending. About how life rarely wraps up that neatly. He forgets about the wallet. She forgets about the time. He calls her “Movie.” She calls him “Wallet.” “Because you lost yourself,” she says.“And you found me,” he replies. They exchange numbers. They keep meeting. For movies. For coffee. For no reason at all. Years later, he never finds that wallet. But he always says losing it was the best thing that ever happened to him.