Once Upon A Little Black Book

Everyday Jerri sleeps straight through the alarm. She never hears it go off. The dog starts barking at the alarm because it hates it. The baby starts screaming because the dog woke her up. Then mother starts yelling to, SHUT THAT DOG UP." Then her father starts yelling that he worked all night and was trying to get some seep. Jerri's mother will come and shut off the alarm and give Jerri a shake.

"Come on sleepy head, time to get up and get ready for school," Jerri's mother said. It doesn't take her long to get ready and she grabs a warm biscuit on her on her way out the door.

Jerri heads down the street and meets her best friend Anna at the corner. They cut through the neighborhood park and across the Wal-Mart parking lot to the high school across the street. Anna found a quarter then Jerri found a dime. They find change all the time and other cool things. Last week Jerri found a ten dollar bill up under a bush and Anna found a necklace the week before. Jerri likes to call their finds "little treasures".

They were almost across the lot when Jerri noticed something up against a curb that been ran over by cars a hundred times. Upon a closer look Jerri sees its a little black book with gold stencil writing on it. Jerri picked it up though it was all scuffed up and saw, "Wear a Dupree" stenciled across the top .

"Check this out Anna. It's full of sketches and designs of woman's clothing. I wonder how this got here. It's clearly someone's work notebook. The inside cover had a stencil that said. "Property of Macy Dupree but there is no phone number," Jerri said. Last year Jerri found a wallet and contacted the owner and received a fifty dollar reward. Today when they get home from school she would try and find out some information about Macy Dupree.

Part II

Macy Dupree was a fashion designer. She was well known among the fashion world. Her brand was Wear A Dupree. She had lines of her clothing in Dillard's, J C Penny, AKRIS, ARTIZIA and more. All high end upper class boutiques. She was going frantic to find her notebook. It had her new line of dresses she was getting ready to submit to USA Clothing Manufacturers. Tomorrow she had to meet with AKRIS at the The Galleria in Dallas, Texas. If she doesn't find those sketches and designs it's going to cost her a lot of money. she already lost 100,000 dollars. Her sister Shelly who is always starting a new business or get rich quick scam, stole her designs for a new line of woman's shoes she was working on. She loved her sister but she enabled her too much. Shelly was a drug user. Their mother moved out of the house because she was afraid Shelly would take all her things. Her mothers exact words were," She takes everything but the kitchen sink and I am not going to stick around till she decides to take that too." Macy new her sister did have sticky fingers, but that's why she put a lock on her bedroom door. She offered to put one on her mothers room too but her mother said she shouldn't have to. She didn't want to stay anywhere that she had to lock up her things, so she left.

"Shelly !" Macy yelled through the house," will you please come down here? '

Shelly came down the stairs. She didn't look too good. She had gone out the night before with her boyfriend Travis who was a spoiled rich socialite who sold drugs. Macy new this because when she got together with people at fund raisers, people talk.

"Shelly, I can't find my little black notebook with all my new designs an sketches in it. I have been so busy running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get my new dress line out there, I have misplaced it. Have you seen it ?" Macy asked.

"No! Are you accusing me of stealing it? Cause I don't need it nor do I want it! I have my own shoe line and I feel insulted." Shelly said.

"Shelly I am not accusing you. I was just asking if you had seen where I might of left it. That's all. I have very important meetings today." Macy said as she grabbed her car keys. She was going to go back to all the stores she went to this morning. Maybe, she left it at Wal-Mart. She was there earlier to get office supplies.

Part III

After school they sat down to look at all the designs in the notebook. They were really good. They decided they needed to brain storm to find Macy. All they had was a name. As they went through the pages they found a page in the back that had a list a names and phone numbers and email addresses.

"Look, She has some numbers in here. we could just start calling these people and ask them how to get ahold of her." Jerri said.

The first name on the list was Shelly Dupree.

"This person has the same last name. Must be a relative. Ill call this one first." Jerri said. She dialed the number and got the answering service. She left a brief message leaving her name and number and explaining that she found the notebook and was trying to return it. The next name on the list was Virginia Mason, CEO Dillard's.

"Hello, Virginia Mason, Dillard's Administration. How can I help you today?" Mrs. Mason said.

"Hello, My name is Jerri Fushi and I am trying to contact Macy Dupree. I found a black notebook today in the parking lot of Wal-Mart and it looks like there are some important clothing designs in there and I was hoping to return it to her. Do you know how I can contact her?" Jerri asked.

"Well, Macy Dupree is a fashion designer and I am sure she is probably missing that. She has an office in downtown Dallas. Her brand is Wear A Dupree. You can google that and it will give you her company website and a way to contact her. "Mrs. Mason explained.

"Thank you so much! I will do just that!" Jerri said. They said good bye and hung up. She called the contact number listed on the webpage but it just rang and rang. She wrote down the number to call it later.

Part VI

Shelly called her boyfriend. She needed a fix. it doesn't take him long to get there. He just lives across the interstate. When he arrived he had a bottle of Patron and a bag of powder. They were both getting pretty toasted when Shelly noticed the light on the answering machine was blinking. She walked over to the house phone and started playing the messages on speaker phone. The third message on the machine was from Jerri. Shelly knew Travis had connections in New York and she told him about her sisters new designs were lost and somebody found them and her sister didn't know it. They had been talking about leaving town and going to New York. That's why she took the shoe designs. Getting them off the ground was a lot harder than she thought but now that she met Travis things might be looking up.

Travis told her to call Jerri back and pretend to be Macy and to erase the message from the machine. Shelly dialed the number.

"Hello, Am I speaking with Jerri Fushi? This is Macy Dupree. I got your message. So, you found my designs? That's awesome! Where do you live and I will come get them. "Shelly said.

"Yes, of course," Jerri said, "but how about meeting at the McDonald's in Wal-Mart off Stately Blvd?"

"That's fine. I can be there in an hour, "Shelly said. Both girls agreed to meet in one hour and they hung up.

Part V

Jerri and Anna get there a little early and ordered a Mc Donald's ice cream cone. Jerri had looked through Macy's company website and saw a picture of Macy featured at the top of the front page. She was very beautiful and fancy looking. Some of the clothes for sale on her webpage were over a thousand dollars. Maybe, Macy would offer her a reward like the Daniel's did when she found their wallet.

A woman waked into the restaurant. It wasn't Macy but the lady was looking at them and walking that way. She looked like she might be on something. Jerri didn't know what to think about this. She probably wants some money so she reached into her purse to get ten dollars. Jerri feels bad for homeless people and people who are addicted. She tries to help them when she can. She figured their life struggles were probably great and needed a little boost now and again.

"Hello, Are you Jerri? I am Macy Dupree. You Have my designs?" Shelly asked.

Anna poked Jerri under the table. Both girls were thinking the same thing . they didn't know who this was, but it wasn't Macy Dupree.

"Um, No I'm sorry ma'am, but we have seen a picture of Macy Dupree from her web page and you are not her." Anna said. Anna was the strong one. the skeptical minded one. Jerri was more relaxed.

"It's ok. I am her sister Shelly. Shelly Dupree. She asked me to come pick them up because she is really busy. "Shelly said.

"I am sorry but we can't do that! "Anna said. She took the notebook and put it behind her back in the booth they were sitting in. This made Shelly a little mad. Shelly had a temper.

"Listen, I didn't drive all this way for nothing. Just give me the notebook. And I'll be on my way!" shelly said.

No! "Anna Said," We don't know who you really are and I guess it really don't matter. You are not Macy Dupree and they don't belong to you. Maybe you could go call her and tell her that she needs to come down here herself." Anna said.

That's all it took. Shelly was mad. She leaned over the table and tried to snatch the notebook from behind Anna and missed. Anna scooted deeper into the booth and Shelly started getting loud cussing them with profanity and she tried to snatch it again but Anna sat on it. By this time the people who work there were watching everything and they called Wal-Mart security. Just so happens the city police were there picking up a shop lifter. they came to the Mc Donald's and removed Shelly from there. They had her outside by the police car. Apparently when she told them her name she had a warrant for her arrest for hot checks.

One of the police officers who arrested Shelly knew her and her sister. He was able to contact Macy and she came right away to the Wal-Mart. When she arrived there was no mistake. It was Macy. She was very neat and sophisticated. She said down with Jerri and Anna and discussed everything that had happened. She was not surprised. "

"My sister has a drug problem and I am hoping that this will be her wake up call and she seeks help. I will probably go bond her out when I leave here and demand she go to rehab. However, I am proud of you both for standing your ground and I want to give a little something for all your troubles." Macy said.

"No, Macy! You don't have to. It's ok." Jerri said.

"No I insist. You just saved me 364,000 dollars! I already signed contracts on my new line and if I had not gotten them back I would not have met my deadline and be in forfeit of my contracts because i would have to re-design a new line and that would take months. So, Please just take this check as a token of my appreciation." Macy said . She pulled a checkbook from her purse and wrote out a check. She folded it in half and slid it across the table. Then she stood up and explained she had a meeting to get to. She picked up her notebook and left.

Jerri picked up the check and opened it ..

Macy gave them $25,000 dollars.....................

The End +