Grandma's Black Notebook

As I opened the letter from my Grandmother a chill came over me. I wanted to throw it away but couldn't.

"You have to find the black notebook. It was taken or lost in the black of night. In this book are the codes for the continuation of our species and if the code is not connected before the 21st hour of the 21st day in the 21st year we will die. You are the deliverer born on the 21st day of the 11th month. You alone must find the Black Notebook."

Hadn't I talked to my grandmother on a video call last week? She hadn't mentioned anything like this. She had to have known - so why the letter? Also, why would she tell me this by letter? We usually message online or by email. I reread the letter again and again looking for any clues. Checking the date, it was October 31st, 2021. I know she loves her holiday puzzles and riddles, and this did seem like a Halloween joke. That would mean I have 21 days to figure this out.

The first thing I decided to do was give her a call. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I clicked on the speed dial for Grandma K. Trying her home phone, I listened to it ring, and ring, and ring. "Hey Grandma, got a strange letter from you. Just wanted to follow up," I distractingly stated to her machine while rereading the letter. Remembering to end the call a little later, I send a text message to her stating the same. Not sure what else to do, I put the note on the table and pull out my daily journal to take some notes. I started by writing what I knew:

Received: October 31st, 2021.

Letter sent: October 27th, 2021.

Deadline: November 21st, 2021 at 9 PM.

To do: Find a Black Notebook containing the 'codes' for our species and connect it to _______ by the deadline. Or else humans all die?

"Alright. Not a lot to go on" I murmured to myself while absently reading the letter again.

Getting the dogs settled into their beds with bones for Halloween night I talked to my spouse about the weird letter. Neither of us knew whether it was a joke or not. Either way, it was quite bizarre. A little later, while sitting on the couch between trick-or-treaters, I tried to take a fresh look at the letter and envelope. Inside the envelope, I noticed something inside. A cheque that must have fallen out of the letter. It was one of my Grandma's cheques, this one with a cardinal on it, for $20,000. The memo simply stated: "To cover notebook travel costs."

Well, that was a new clue! A quick search through our photos showed that the last place we went together was The Fox Hotel in Banff! That evening, between visitors at the door and calming our puppies, I found the souvenir stuffed animal I had from that trip. I let my spouse know the plan - and how I intended to follow up the strange letter. With her support, I booked a last-minute room at The Fox for the week coming.

Deciding it may be best to plan this out, I pulled out a fresh notebook and made a list of my travels with Grandma. This is what I wrote in my notebook:

Trip: Fox Hotel - Banff - June 2012

Notes: Went through the shops and up the Gondola.

Trip: Victoria - May 2010

Notes: Went to Port Angeles, the Wax Museum, and the Nautical Museum.

Hmm. It's a start but definitely needs to be fleshed out. I copy both trips to their own pages so I can take notes when I arrive at each location.

The following day was spent over at my parent’s house celebrating my Mom's birthday. She had received flowers from my grandma, so things seemed normal. When I asked my family about strange black notebooks or a ‘code for our species’ I got the expected weird looks. Nothing to suggest anything was amiss.

The morning after I grabbed an overnight bag, loaded up some playlists and put the stuffed fox on the dash before hitting the road. After a pleasant drive, I made it to the hotel by the middle of the afternoon. Parking out front, I made a habitual glance at my phone. A message from my spouse wishing me a good drive and trip, and a concerned message from my family regarding my grandmother’s unusual silence on social media. A bit anxious, I grabbed my bags, the stuffed animal and went to check-in. Reaching the front desk and providing my name, they inform me a package had been delivered to my room. Bizarre. Taking my parking pass, and moving my car to the garage I head to my room not sure what to expect.

Plopping my bags on one of the beds, I see a cellophane-covered wicker gift basket on the other. Looking inside I see an intricate black card over a couple of stuffed animals. One, a stuffed fox, and the second, a stuffed orca. The card read:

"I'm sorry I could never tell you about this, but it looks like you are on the right path. The codes must be entered. That's all I can tell you. I hope you will figure out where and know I love you." - Grandma K

Well, it's a start. I copy the new note into my notebook and look closer at the package. The fox matched my own - also from this hotel. The whale was from the gift shop of Coast Hotel of Victoria, BC. This confirmed those trips were hints. Also inside I found some apple pie flavoured saltwater taffy and chocolate-chip cookies.

I gave my spouse a call to update her and let her know I arrived safely. I mentioned the Victoria trip and suggested that we go together. Given chocolate chip cookies are more her thing than mine, it may have been a clue for us to go together. She agreed with my logic and we took a quick look at her work schedule. Seeing that her next weekend off was coming up, I booked the trip and flights for that weekend while she booked the dogs into boarding. Saying our goodbyes I changed into a bathing suit to enjoy the hot tub and the mountains. It wasn’t very often I got to enjoy being in a hotel in the mountains! After, I showered and had a meal at the restaurant and went for a small walk around town before settling back into my room to read.

The next morning I got up and headed out into the brisk mountain morning air. Walking around town I did my best to recreate my trip with my grandmother years prior. I visited the bar we went to for lunch and check out the different souvenir shops. With nothing jumping out at me, I headed back to the hotel. Asking the concierge about booking a gondola trip, they informed me that I would be able to for tomorrow. Happily, I agreed and extended my stay another night.

The following day I was again shocked at how alive the city was in the morning. Always shocking to a night-owl like myself, I couldn’t help but smile at everyone going about their morning routine. Driving past the town, I made the winding journey up to the gondola. Excited for the journey, I looked around at the other passengers going up. It looked to be a family with some young children who were nervous and giddy to go up the mountain and a young couple exploring Banff for the first time! Seeing their happiness and nervousness reminded me why I love to people watch. On the slow, scenic trip up the mountain, I was remembered my grandma’s story about how my grandfather's relative helped build the original gondola. It's a story that always brings me a little bit of pride and a smile. I decided it was best to keep that to myself and continued to watch as we rose higher above the treeline towards our destination.

Reaching the top I started the walk towards the tea house that resided up here. It didn’t take long, but the snow flurry makes it feel all that more surreal. I had to wait for a table upon arriving, as they were currently full. Disappointed I couldn’t see the mountains around me due to the snow, I looked around the restaurant. They had a collection of items used when the tea house was first opened. It included an old black register, a variety of old tea containers, some snowshoes, and even a stuffed fox. A little while later, the host directed me towards a table. Though I enjoyed my cup of orange pekoe I didn’t feel any further in my hunt for clues. Happy to have had the adventure but disappointed I hadn’t made any progress I decided it was time to go home.

When I got back, it was apparent something was wrong. The family was worried as nobody had heard from Grandma throughout the weekend. My aunt had texted the family to let us know she was going to pop in on her. When nobody was home and only a letter was left saying she had gone on vacation, we were rather concerned. My partner and I agreed it was connected to this mystery she had left me. We spent the week preparing for our weekend trip. On the morning of Friday, November 5th, we boarded a plane for Victoria, British Columbia. Checking in, we were informed a gift package had been left for us in the room... again. Looking at each other, we hurried to our room straight away. Sitting on the bed was another wicker basket. Inside this one was more candy, hot chocolate and tea. The note read, as follows:

"You're getting close. I can only hope you are in time. Please, keep moving. Don't sit still." - Love, Grandma K.

Adding this to my notebook, and reading over everything I knew - I didn't know how to make heads or tails of it. We put the tea & hot chocolate packages next to the room kettle and got changed for the day. After a short nap, we boarded a taxi ferry to the Wax Museum. While on the ferry, I told my partner the story of when I had visited last with my grandmother. While I had been busy exploring the museum, my grandma had gone to the front area to read her book. The table she had sat at had a wax figurine also reading. While there, she sat so still some people thought she was a wax figure herself!

After a small walk, we made it to the famed museum. When inside, we immediately saw the table she had sat at. On the table, in the spot where she had been reading on our trip, was a black notebook. It was plain, other than golden flourish on the front. With a few prompting questions, we found out that a nice older lady seemed to have forgotten it there earlier in the week. They were waiting for her to pick it up and decided to leave it. Showing them a photo of my grandmother, we confirmed it was hers. So I grabbed it and assured them I was bringing it back to her.

The book contained years and years of handwritten cafe receipts. Each receipt was specifically from November 21st. The orders were often a cup of tea or a sandwich. Going back to our hotel to figure it out, my partner and I debated different possible theories. We figured we had the notebook in hand but no obvious ‘codes’ or where to put them. Over dinner that night, my partner figured it out. The tea house on the mountain. The notebook would have been something that would fit in with their collection. Deciding that the cash register must be where we enter the codes, we scheduled a flight as soon as possible.

Taking a redeye flight as close as we could, we used some of the remaining money from my grandmother to rent a car. Given it was mid-day on the 6th I knew we had some time but didn't want to wait. Especially since nobody had heard from my grandmother in well over a week now.

We made our way up the gondola once again, now not taking the time to pay attention to anything but our goal. Getting to the top we sped towards the tea house. Not stopping at the front door, we hurried to the old register on display. I pull open the book and start typing out the numbers on those old keys. I went through each order year by year. It took time, and some strong convincing by my partner to the staff to leave me alone. In the end, once I had finished typing up all the contents of the book, nothing happened. It was awkward, and we both felt frustrated.

Sitting for a cup of tea and thanking the patient staff once again, we went through our notes and the notebook again. We noticed that every year there was an order at 11:21 am on November 21st, or to match our original letter: the 21st day of the 11th month. The book had an order from last year, but none from this year. Defeated, for now, we booked a tea reservation for 11 am on November 21st and went home. Waiting wasn't easy, but it was all we could do. For 15 days we waited. Nobody had heard anything of Grandma during that time, and missing person's reports had been filed. We were all quite worried.

On the 21st we returned. With great anticipation, we had our hot chocolate and tea. We wrote our receipt in the book for the 21st minute, of the 11th hour, on the 21st day of the 11th month of the 21st year. Then we added it to the ancient register. Upon doing so, an employee door opened and Grandma walked out walker in hand. She seemed elated and tired, but happy to see us. When we asked her about where she was and what had happened, she would tell us nothing. She took us to The Fox for my birthday dinner where she ordered us food and dodged every one of our questions. The only thing she would say is it was a story for another time.