The Black Book

1

Marie was cold. In fact, at this moment, she could not imagine being any colder than she was right now. The rain had soaked through every layer of her clothing, and every gust of wind sent her body trembling. With every passing second, she doubted her reasons for being out in this weather even more.

Marie pulled her phone out of her pocket. She held it close to her body and hunched over in a fruitless attempt to protect it from the rain that seemed to be coming from every direction including up from the ground. The screen read “2:07 am”. She unlocked it. The text from Aaron was still open from the last time she had double-checked the time and place of their rendezvous, and just like the previous three times, it still had not changed. In the short time she had known Aaron, she had never gotten the impression that he was particularly worried about punctuality, but she had hoped that the importance of tonight’s meeting would have encouraged him to at least try to be on time. Marie hastily typed out a message to him, “Where r u”, and jammed the phone back in her pocket knowing there was little chance Aaron would respond.

A breeze sent a fresh wave of shivers down her spine, and she again began to regret her decision not to wear a jacket this morning. Marie began to bounce on the balls of her feet in the hopes that the movement might bring some feeling back into her extremities. It did not. Her clothes clung to her body like cellophane, and water spurted from Marie’s shoes every time she bounced. She considered trying to find some semblance of shelter nearby but decided there was little point in it since she was already about as wet as any person could be without actually being submerged in water.

Marie slid her phone out of her pocket again, and, as expected, there was no response from Aaron. It was now 2:12 in the morning. She wondered how long she was reasonably expected to wait. They were supposed to meet at two, which meant that since she had arrived early, she had now been standing on a dark street, in what felt like a monsoon, for more than a quarter of an hour. She tried not to ponder the dangers of being out alone at night, telling herself that no sane person would be out now in this type of weather. Unfortunately, it is rarely the “sane” people one’s brain tends to focus on when a person is standing on a deserted street by themselves in the middle of the night.

Just as Marie was attempting to banish thoughts of knife-wielding men in hockey masks jumping out of every dark corner, she saw a pair of headlights round the corner ahead of her and come her way. The pounding rain made it impossible for her to tell if this was Aaron’s car, but she told herself no one else would be driving by here now. The car pulled up to the sidewalk in front of her and the driver leaned over and opened the passenger door.

“Get in,” Aaron told her.

Marie hesitated for a brief moment as she considered the potential ramifications of hopping into a car with a man she barely knew, but the wind and rain made the decision fairly easy, and she climbed in.

“Where the hell have you been? You were supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago,” she chided him.

“Sorry,” he responded, “had to drive slow in all this rain.”

“Really?” Marie asked incredulously, “you could have called or texted me, so I didn’t have to stand out here getting soaked.”

“Sorry, I’ll be sure to let you know next time.” He said with a wink. “You got the book?”

“Yeah, the little black one with all the dates in it. Just like you asked.” She lifted the front of her shirt and pulled a small black book out of her front waistband where she had tucked it in a vain attempt to keep it dry. “You know if you’d been here on time it might have been dry.”

“That’s alright. We’ll make do.” Aaron said as he took the book from her. He pulled a plastic grocery bag out of his jacket and tossed it to her. “You better get out of town quick. He’s gonna notice this is gone.”

Marie looked in the bag. There were two stacks of hundred-dollar bills wrapped in yellow bands. Her jaw dropped. “I’m not doing this for money,” she told him.

“Oh, I know. That’s just a little cash to help you get settled somewhere else. He’s going to have a lot of people looking for you. I wouldn’t come back here.”

Marie closed the bag, unsure of what to do with this much cash. She had never had this much money in her possession before. “I’d planned on leaving in the morning.”

“I’d probably leave tonight if I were you, but definitely no later than tomorrow morning. It won’t take them long to figure out it was you who took it, and you’ll want to be long gone when they do,” he warned, “I can give you a ride to your place, but then I got to bring this book in.”

“Sure, thanks,” she responded, “my apartment’s only a few blocks north of here.”

2

Marie practically slid through the front door of her studio apartment. She locked the door and began the arduous process of peeling off layers of waterlogged clothing. A hot shower was calling to her. She hopped to the bathroom as she tried to extricate herself from her final, particularly stubborn, pant leg. Marie made it all the way to the shower before noticing she was still holding the bag of cash that Aaron had given her.

As Marie studied the grocery bag, which held more money than she had ever seen, she realized that she had no idea what to do with a bag full of cash. Marie felt as though she should be excited, she was holding more money in one hand than she had earned throughout all of last year, but she was not. As she held it, all Marie felt was sadness. Was this all her life was worth? The enormity of her insignificance was staring her in the face, and she blenched. Marie began to cry. The tears vanished into the puddle of rainwater that had already formed under her feet. One night as a pawn in a war between rich boys had netted her more than any other work she had done in her lifetime.

Marie did not try to stop the tears. She let herself mourn for a few minutes because mourning was what this was. This money came with a price. Her life was over, or at least the life she had had up until today. Aaron’s warning that they would be looking for her lingered in the air. Marie sniffed and wiped her eyes. She could continue mourning later, right now she needed to get moving or her new life was going to be a very brief one.

Marie lingered in the shower, allowing the warm water to bring feeling back to her fingers and toes. While she stood under the calcified showerhead, Marie began to plan her next steps. $20,000 was a considerable amount but it would not last long if she was not careful. She tried her best to remain optimistic. The fact that she was broke and owned little was usually rather demoralizing, but in this instance at least, it meant that decamping to a new city would be relatively painless. She exited the shower and toweled off, before accoutering herself in her most comfortable pair of sweatpants and beginning the challenging process of deciding which of her belongings were worth toting on her back.

3

Upon completing the daunting task of condensing her life into what could be carried in a backpack and duffel bag, Marie collapsed onto her bed exhausted. It was now nearly five in the morning, and Marie had a couple of hours at most before the absence of the black book would be noticed. Ultimately, the hardest thing to pack was the cash. In the end, she had decided to split it up and put some in each bag as well as jamming a few bills into various pockets and her left sock. This way, she concluded, if something bad were to occur, she could not possibly lose all of it.

Marie decided that she had enough time for a short nap before she had to lug her bags to the nearest bus stop. She set an alarm for 6:00 am and almost immediately fell asleep.

Marie awoke with a start. She checked the time. It was past eight now. She had slept straight through her alarm. Marie jumped out of bed, threw on her shoes, and grabbed her bags. They would have undoubtedly discovered that the book was missing by now, and it would not have taken them long to deduce that it was her who had absconded with it. She hurried to the door and peered through the peephole to see if any goons were waiting for her in the hallway. Seeing no one, she unlocked the door and poked her head out. The hall was empty. She glanced one last time at her apartment and all of her stuff she was leaving behind, before making a hurried dash to the elevator.

As Marie waited for the elevator, she racked her brain trying to remember if any of them knew where she lived. Suddenly, an image of elevator doors opening onto a group of burly men ready to drag her away popped into her head, and she quickly ducked into the stairwell. Her back ached from the mere thought of carrying her bags down five stories, but the thought of being trapped on an elevator with nowhere to run seemed much worse. She peeked over the edge of the railing, and thankfully the stairwell was empty.

Marie finally reached the bottom of the stairs. She dropped the duffel bag at her feet as she leaned against the wall. Why did all of her earthly possession have to be so heavy? She chanced a look through the window in the door and lept back. Someone was waiting by the elevators. A few tense moments passed as Marie waited for the door to the stairwell to fly open. When it did not, she leaned forward for the briefest of glances and saw the person walk onto the elevator. She waited a few more moments and then looked out the window again. The coast was clear. She picked up her bag and carefully opened the door. With her head on a swivel, she rushed for the exit at the back of the building.

Marie burst through the doors into an alleyway behind the building. The sunlight did little to allay her fears as she sprinted through the alley with the knowledge that she was carrying $20,000 in cash. She was grateful the rain had stopped though. She made it out of the alley without running into any more people and made her way to the bus stop.

A cool breeze caused Marie to shiver, and she realized that in her hasty exit she had again forgotten to grab her jacket. In fact, all she had on was the t-shirt and sweatpants she had slept in. She rummaged through her duffel bag and found an old hoodie. She slipped it on and pulled the hood down as far as she could to hide her face.

A few minutes later, the bus arrived. Marie climbed on and made her way to the back. A wave of relief washed over her as the bus pulled away from the curb. She had made it.