Murder

Every Sunday, like clockwork Andrew woke up exactly two hours earlier than his weekday 8am. While most people used Sundays to catch up on much needed rest, Andrew used it for something a great deal weirder. At least that is what he had been told. Repeatedly.

Andrew paid market value for a ground floor studio apartment in L.A. He made fairly good money as a sanitation engineer at a very nice bank. His job was close enough to his apartment that he could walk there and had no need for a car or to pay for a bus. He hated bikes but only because he had never learned to ride one.

He liked to eat oatmeal for breakfast, a bologna sandwich on white bread with the crusts cut off for lunch, and roast chicken with a baked potato for dinner. He never bothered to eat out at restaurants and he definitely didn’t like golf.

For Andrew life was predictable and that was exactly how he preferred it. Today was Sunday, and on Sundays Andrew woke up early to go bird watching. Behind the white wicker sliding doors of Andrew's closet was a fanny pack, lime wind breaker, and a pair of binoculars. Everything that Andrew needed to brave the feral land that was the park near his apartment.

Andrew refused to leave his apartment without making his bed and washing his breakfast dishes first. He had tried that once, but he had spent the entire day thinking about them at home, unclean. After brushing his teeth and getting dressed in plain light blue jeans and a grey t-shirt Andrew grabbed his gear and zipped his windbreaker all the way up to his chin.

Sundays were different. Sundays were Andrews’ favorite. Nobody expected anything of him. Nobody made side glances or spoke behind his back about how odd he seemed. On Sundays Andrew was alone, and alone was where he found the most peace.

His favorite park was 4 blocks away and Andrew walked there with exuberance, his binoculars bouncing slightly against his chest. On Sundays there weren't even joggers this early. Andrew was alone with the birds. In the pocket of his wind breaker was a handful of bird seed. Most of the time Andrew would find a quiet spot in a tree to watch but by midafternoon he was ready to make the birds come to him.

This Sunday was no different and Andrew spotted his favorite tree on the opposite end of the park from the playground. Within minutes Andrew had climbed to the third limb up on the tree and did his best to blend in between the leaves. He pulled his binoculars out and proceeded to spend the next five hours watching birds.

Over the course of the morning Andrew identified several Finch, along with a very curious woodpecker that did not seem to enjoy Andrew’s choice of seating. He noticed a small murder of crows had begun to form over by the currently vacant park benches.

Although it was approaching noon, the park was still mostly empty except for a few moms watching their kids play on the playground, and a pair of older men in very rich looking suits sitting on the one bench overlooking the pond.

Andrew slid from his tree doing his best not to be seen by the moms at the playground. The benches near the entrance were still empty as he made his way to sit down on one. Almost immediately the murder of crows that had been forming before, moved toward Andrew.

He casually withdrew a bit of the bird seed from his pocket and threw it in a small arch in front of him. The seed scattered just beyond his white sneakers. Every crow in the area immediately descended on Andrew. Covering the bench and the ground in front of him with shiny black feathered bodies.

This was Andrew’s absolute favorite part of Sundays. His friends. Sometimes they would stay with him for an hour, and sometimes just long enough to eat their fill, but to Andrew it didn’t matter, he loved them just the same.

Andrew was gleeful as he watched his friends eat and play. He did not noticed the crow on the bench right next to him. He did not notice until the crow jumped from the bench up onto Andrews shoulder.

This was not the first time one of his friends had landed on him, but it certainly was the first time one of them was holding something in their beak when they did, and this one was holding a small black notebook. Andrew turned his head best as he could to speak with the crow on his shoulder.

“is this for me?” He asked, before placing his fingers gently on the binding.

The crow released the book right away and hopped down from Andrew’s shoulder. From the bench it looked up at Andrew and just watched. Andrew nodded his thanks to the bird before turning his attention to the little black notebook in his hands.

There were no identifying markers on the book, it looked to simply be a small plain black notebook. Intrigued Andrew began to open the cover but was abruptly distracted when the two older men by the pond began yelling at each other.

From this distance Andrew could not hear what they were saying but he could notice how angry the two men seemed. He also noticed when the taller of the two men drew a gun and raised it toward the other. Andrew could not help but notice when the man fired that gun. It was hard to miss the shorter man dropping to his knees before falling face down. Andrew sat in shocked silence watching the gunman dig through the pockets of the now dead man.

“CAW!”

Surprised from his dazed stupor Andrew began to feel what he considered to be a completely normal amount of fear. It was enough fear to make him stand up and run, not forgetting the little black book that was now secure within his windbreaker.

Andrew was all the way home to his apartment before he allowed himself to take a deep breath. It was for that reason he proceeded to take many deep breaths, mostly from running but also from being a witness to murder. Andrew did not like unpredictable things happening. He really hated murder.

Andrew decided that he would have to just forget what he saw and move on with his day. He didn’t know those men and he certainly didn’t see or know anything that would help. It would be best for everyone if Andrew saw nothing at all. With that decided he took one more deep breath before heading to the kitchen to make a bologna sandwich.

After lunch Andrew began cleaning out the pockets of his wind breaker like he did every Sunday. He had done such a good job at forgetting what he had seen that he had forgotten about the little black notebook too. Now he held it in his hands unsure of what to do.

Curiosity won as it usually does, and Andrew flipped open the front cover. The first page was empty, so he began to turn each page slowly to make sure he didn’t miss a single possible thing. He was almost halfway through the book without there being a single word written when his fingers caught a lose bit of paper folded and tucked into the pages.

Andrew knew exactly what he was looking at. A 30-year $10,000 savings bond. He had seen only one before now and it had not been for nearly as much money. He checked the date the bond had been purchased and learned it had already passed the 30-year mark and was now worth double.

Some people always want more. A bigger house, or a nicer car. Maybe they want to have fancy clothes and hair. Andrew is not one of those people. Andrew is happy with his small apartment. He is happy with walking to work, and he is most happy when he is with his birds. One thing that does not bring Andrew much joy is money.

That didn’t matter much as Andrew now found himself $20,000 richer. He waited until Monday morning and walked to the bank like he did every weekday. This time before clocking in he went to the front desk teller and asked to deposit the bond into his account. Andrew knew this teller well, as she was the only one that smiled and talked to him when he had transactions.

Today she smiled at him extra wide and it lit her blue eyes up in a way that Andrew really liked. She seemed to be excited for Andrew and his new wealth, not at all jealous. Andrew wished he understood why she was so excited for him, so he decided to ask her. Something he didn’t do much as people were often rude and not worth his time.

Andrew found that he liked the nice bank teller’s answer to his question. She was excited because if it had been her, she would have used the money to help her sick brother. Andrew also found it incredibly easy to give the bank teller all $20,000. He did not find it easy to handle her tears, but she assured him they were joyful and he decided to believe her.

The rest of the day at work was mostly uneventful. A few of his coworkers paid him more attention than usual and not in a bad way either, he chose to continue his day as normal even when he was asked to go for drinks after work. He had never been asked before and did not see a reason to go anyway. The bank teller wasn’t going and without her Andrew really didn’t care about anyone else.

He walked home like normal and made his chicken and potato like normal before turning on the nightly news. The headline for the night was about a shooting in a nearby park. The news anchor explained how the shooter had been apprehended and admitted to killing the man in the park. When asked why he did it the shooter would not say but investigators had discovered the truth anyway.

The two men in the park had been bank robbers and accomplices. It was suspected that the dead man still had one remaining stolen bond that he never let out of his sight. The shooter had been trying to find the last bond. Sources claim the victim kept the bond folded up and tucked between the pages of a small black notebook. Anyone with any information is being asked to go to the police with it immediately.

That night Andrew washed his dinner dishes and got ready for bed. He planned to spend the next day exactly as planned, and that did not include a visit to the police.