Linen Rag Fibers

Simmy and Youthful pulled up to their third dime store stop of the day. An older gentleman, wearing a long tweed coat, was just entering the store and Simmy sensed a recognition.
Hopping out of the vehicle, Simmy purchased a parking ticket, tossed it on the dashboard and the two women went into the store to see what treasure they would find.
Simmy headed straight for the linen tea towels to see if there were a few new treasures to be found. In a out of the mist appearance, the tweed coated man stepped in front of her and said, 'Hello!'
Simmy didn't try to side- step, sensing no danger in him, and said, 'Hello,' as well.
He was not very tall but he had warm brown eyes in an olive tanned face with just the right amount of wrinkles around his eyes to suggest he enjoyed laughter.
'Jewish and educated,' thought Simmy.
He added the pleasantry of 'How are you?' and Simmy answered with similar pleasantry of 'Fine.'
He then exited the store and Simmy poked around the tea towels to see if there were some without holes. As she unfolded and refolded, a twenty dollar bill dropped out of a towel, also folded and refolded.
She picked it up and something inside of her sensed that the tweed coated man had planted it there. Just to be sure though, she kept her ears open in case anyone in the store would say they had lost it... no one did.
Sam and oldest son needed haircuts. Sam told Simmy "You have to come too. We don't meet her needs. You are the one she always wants to talk to."
Simmy sat down in the hairdressers' chair and just delved right into the elephant in the room topic.
"How is your brother?"
"Not good," Spirited replied, not sounding her usual spunky self.
"How long were you in the Philippines?" Simmy asked.
"A month... I stayed at the hospital, with my brother, almost the whole time. When I went to my sisters' place to take a shower, he asked for me even in that time-frame. I cashed in an RRSP and used all the money I had to get him some medical treatment, 407,000 pesos."
"What is his prognosis?"
"Not good. They are just making him comfortable at home. He cannot eat, the cancer is in his stomach."
Simmy offered words of hope to Spirited and told her she was not responsible for a dictatorship style country that didn't offer Medicare for everyone as equals.
As Simmy paid for their haircuts, she looked for the folded $20 bill she had found in the linen tea towel and placed it on the counter as well.
"It's not much but put this toward what you've done for your brother," Simmy said as she reached over to hug Spirited.
As they made their way back to their vehicle, Simmy jabbered about the man in the long tweed coat and said, "I got the feeling, he planted the money in the towel. Maybe it was a test for him to get his PhD. I figure he got some instructions and then had to see what would happen with it."
"How would he ever know?" Sam asked, a bit jaded.
"How do we ever know?" Simmy replied.