Small Black Notebook

"I want to return this money!" The adolescent man slams the receipt on the counter. "Sir, you just won the lottery. You can't return the money" said the man behind the counter.

"Shoot," he yelled.

He turned around and dashed through the broken door leaving a cold breeze behind. As we walked through the chalky, narrow sidewalks the clouds began to cave into one ginormous disaster of a fall.

"Oh, great heavens! How could this day get any worse?" He said as he took a deep breath.

A woman in her early twenties approached the young man with an umbrella. "Hello, you might want to hand over what is mine." She speaks softly like the water trickling from the window of the store in front of them.

"Excuse me? I have no clue what you are talking about, madam."

Rue gasps for the breath of life as he puts his hand over his neck. The woman, comforting him while he breathes uncontrollably leaving a mark at the end.

"How was your sleep, my love" the woman asks.

"It was better than the dreams of my past," he replies.

The woman in a swiftly cream cottage dress like a barbie in the 1950s. Rue pulled the blanket off his body and managed to place his feet on the damp, icey hardwood floor.

He briskly walked to the wall, where he bends over to look out the window and sees the same old neighbourhood he knew since he was a little boy. The park on the left hand side, his school right behind it and the girl that lived across the street.

The girl that lived across the street never came out of her room. Rue would constantly watch over from his window to see her, sitting at her desk. When he was younger he always wondered why, why can't she come out and play? A few years went by and his mother invited them over for dinner. The reason why she couldn't come out for anything was because Agoraphobia. But Rue believed that something happened to her to cause that.

The clouds slowly moved as the sun directly hit on his body. The dark shadows outline his abs ending with his Calvin Klein underwear. Rue walks into the washroom and notices his father's glasses on the vanity.

"That was never there before." he was shocked.

Rue grabbed the glasses and galloped down the stairs to meet his mother in the kitchen.

"Why is dad's glasses on my vanity?" he asked.

"I found them in the garage. I have to run to the Supermarket, would you come with me?"

His mother has always been prominent with her words, she doesn't like to talk much about father either or she will change the topic.

"Yes mother." He never went to the Supermarket that often, only when his mother asks.

Rue was 9 years old when his father left him. His mother tucked him nice and tight in his dinosaur blanket and kissed him goodnight. His father always came home around 3 o'clock in the morning because of his shifts at work. Rue's mother took advantage of that by having a lot of time with Rue and herself. Apparently, his father died in an accident on the highway as he was coming home. The countless nights of sleep deprivation, he got so restless that he slammed into another car and got instantly killed.

Rue reached for the glasses and headed back upstairs to get dressed. He wore dark sweatpants with a sweatshirt that was neutral tone. His cousins always told him to become a model, he would look so good. But he never took them seriously. He went back downstairs and met his mother in the car.

These individuals reached the supermarket in one piece after his mother's ridiculous driving. Sometimes he doesn't even know how she got her driver's license.

His mother went into the trunk to grab the reusable bags as a small black notebook drops from the top of her purse.

Rue instantly picked it up and was about to give it to her but was curious of what was inside. He stuffs it into his pocket of his sweatpants and they head into the grocery. He moved quickly in the Supermarket because he wanted to get home quickly ín order to read the contents of the book.

"What could be in there," he thought.

Rue and his mother loaded up the groceries in the trunk and headed home. They unloaded together and he helped to pack up.

After they were finished, Rue began to walk up the stairs.

"Where are you going?" she asks.

"I have some leftover math homework to do, I'll be down before dinner." he replies.

"Okay, my love" his mother says.

Rue walks into his room and closes the door to allow his privacy. He takes out the small black notebook from his pocket and places it on his desk by his window.

He opens the first page as the old paper crinkles in the silence.

Dear Diary,

My husband was a dashing, loving and caring man but he found out the godly truth and that's what had to happen. This darling of a girl saw everything that had happened and I feel so sorry for her soul. So God please forgive me, I didn't want him to kill me because I was sleeping with other men on his shifts, once as he found out I had to kill him. My son believes the accident story and that's what I'll stick with for everyone. It felt so good to write this.

Rue's eyes filled with tears as he looked up to his window. The girl at her window while the blinds covering parts of her face.

The woman that doesn't even seem like the mother Rue knew, knocks on the door to check on him.

"Honey, are you okay?" she asks softly.

"It was you." his voice trembles as he turns slowly to match his brown eyes that she has given him. He holds the small black notebook in his hand to show her.

She raises her hands up to her mouth indespair and says "hand over what is mine," in a harsh tone that he has never met before.