The Gilded Edge

Another bump along the rutted street sent Sana’s body flying into the air. She winced as she landed--hard--on her right shoulder. The dingy white delivery van had been whizzing through Brooklyn at breakneck speed for some time. Both her wrists and ankles were raw, swollen, and bloody, but she, once again, struggled against the rope binding her. Her initial feelings of fright and confusion had subsided. Now, she was just determined to free herself.

A particularly deep rut in the road slammed her against something rough in the back of the van and a gash opened above her left eyebrow. The blood slowly trickled across Sana’s face, mingling with the sweat and dirt of the past few hours. Sana screamed hoarsely around the gag in her mouth. “You see this, Gigi?!” Tonight’s occurrences were just a long line of trouble that followed the older woman’s death.

Gertrude Cartwright, known affectionately as Gigi, had left this earth just three days ago. Sweet and gentle, Gigi had been everything to Sana and discovering her lifeless body had literally taken Sana’s breath. Fresh tears slid across the bridge of Sana’s nose and into her ears as she thought through Monday night and Tuesday morning for what felt like the thousandth time.

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Gigi and Sana functioned as a unit--a grandmother and granddaughter linked at the hip. Outside of Gigi’s partner Carolyn, they had no real friends or family to speak of. Monday nights consisted of Jeopardy and Sana reading aloud from some tome as her grandmother listened and knit. But, not this Monday. Not after receiving the little black book and the stack of money--$20,000 to be exact.

Someone had just left the items in the mailbox. On her way in from the flower shop, Sana checked the rusted mailbox hanging to the left of the front door, just as she always did. She surely did not expect to reach in and pull out stacks of money. Her eyes widened and she glanced around frantically to ensure that none of the nosy neighbors were watching. The block was surprisingly silent for a mild spring day. No kids, no dogs, no witnesses. Sana hastily thrust the bills into the Trader Joe’s tote she used as a purse.

After finding the money, Sana should have just rushed into the house and counted it with Gigi, but her fingers brushed something warm when she pulled out the cash. The money was definitely a surprise, but the little black book was a real beauty. Pristine and well-made, its pages were crisp and edged in gold. No text graced the book’s cover or pages.

After ensuring there were no other items in the mailbox, Sana locked it and rushed inside, loudly calling Gigi’s name as soon as she unlocked the door and stepped into the foyer of the grand Victorian home nestled in a quiet corner of Ditmas Park.

“Gigi! Gigi! Where are you? You will not believe what I just found…,” Sana’s voice and excitement abruptly halted as her brown eyes fell upon Carolyn sitting in the living room’s reading nook. “Hi Carolyn,” Sana greeted flatly.

Carolyn placed the day’s newspaper down and met Sana with a warm smile. Gigi’s girlfriend had been fighting for Sana’s affection for years despite Sana’s cool demeanor.

“Happy Monday, Sana!” Carolyn greeted. “How’s the shop?”

Sana ignored the greeting and inquiry and blurted out, “Where’s my Gigi?” Her hand protectively slipped into the tote hanging from her shoulder and she brushed the gilded edges of the little black journal.

“Is everything alright, sweetheart? You look like something is bothering you.” Lines of worry creased Carolyn’s forehead.

“No, no, I’m fine. Where is my grandmother?”

“Running errands, I guess,” Carolyn answered with a shrug. “I haven’t been able to reach her all day. She probably forgot to charge her phone again.”

“Right, probably forgot to charge her phone again.” Sana turned on her heel and headed towards the basement. “Tell her I need to speak to her when she gets in.”

“Sure Sana. There’s some warm pizza in the kitchen.” Carolyn watched Sana’s retreat with pursed lips. Sana took a quick detour to the kitchen, placed two slices of pizza on a ceramic plate, and took the back staircase to what she referred to as her “underground lair.”

In her own space, Sana bolted the door and moved to the sitting area. She dialed her grandmother, but got her voicemail. After wolfing down the pizza, Sana set the warm journal in her lap and began to count out the double stack of bills. Gigi certainly was not hurting financially, but money was money. Sana could, at the very least, give her a total of the lump sum. Gigi would know what to do with the money and provide an explanation for the little black book with its gilded edges.

Finally, she counted out the last bill and checked the running tally sheet on her phone. “Twenty thousand dollars just sitting in our mailbox,” Sana mumbled to herself.

A soft knock at the door signaled Gigi’s return. Sana rushed to the door, swung it open, and embraced her grandmother. Gigi’s hugs were all she needed to ensure everything was okay. Though Gigi returned the hug, there was something off about her. Sana pulled back and looked into her grandmother’s face. Gigi’s kind smile was weary and it did not meet her eyes.

Still in the embrace, Sana asked, “Where have you been all day?”

Without answering, Gigi pulled away and moved deeper into the basement turned teenage den.

“Before she left, Carolyn mentioned you seemed a little flustered when you came in today. Is everything alright?” Gigi punctuated her question with a nervous smile.

Sana quickly closed and bolted the door once again. “Gigi, look what I found in the mailbox!”

Sana grabbed Gigi’s hand and drug her to the loveseat where she had left the journal and the money, now organized into four neat stacks bound by large binder clips.

A gasp left Gigi’s lips and she snatched her hand from Sana’s grasp.

“I know! Look at all of this money! Why do you think someone left it in our mailbox?”

But, a tentative glance over her shoulder found her grandmother to be staring gap-mouthed and wide-eyed at the little black book. Its gilded pages glinted in the overhead light. Sana, ever the dutiful granddaughter, handed it to her grandmother, but, upon touching her grandmother’s palms, the journal seemed to leap back to Sana. Gigi instinctively backed away until her back hit the lair’s bedroom door.

Stammering in a soft whisper, Gigi asked, “Gigi’s baby, where did you get this from?”

“Oh, you mean the journal. It was in the mailbox with the money. It feels a little warm.”

Gigi shook her head slowly from side to side. “ We have to get this mess out of the house.”

“But, grandma!”

“No, Sana, there are things...We have to...We have to get this out of the house.”

“Gigi, are you okay? Have a seat. What’s wrong?”

The older woman grabbed Sana by her shoulders and said, “We should get rid of these things. We do not know where they come from. Let’s get rid of them, especially that...that book.”

Sana looked over at the offending item.

“Okay, Gigi. Okay. I will take the book out to the trash, but we have to keep the money. Come on now.”

Gigi released a soft chuckle. “We will hold onto the money, but that journal has to go now.”

Without a word, Sana retrieved a plastic bag from the closet and gently placed the book inside. Trashing the journal just didn’t feel right, but the grimace on Gigi’s face was unbearable.

Sana raced up the stairs and out the front door. It was now dark outside. While tossing the plastic bag and its contents into one of the trash bins by the street, she caught a glimpse of someone standing a few houses down, at the edge of the Rogers' driveway. The streetlight illuminated his dark brown skin as he looked over at Sana. Probably one of Mr. Rogers’ work buddies. She gave a quick wave before turning and bounding up the stairs of her home.

Back in the basement, sitting at Sana’s work desk, Gigi declared, “You’re going to sleep upstairs with me tonight. It will be like old times.”

“Gigi, everything is okay now. The book will be in the dump by tomorrow night and we can tear Neiman’s up with that money!”

“Honey, I want you near me. Okay? Please oblige an old woman.”

Sana sighed. “Okay, let me shower and I will meet you up…”

“No! You will shower and sleep upstairs. We are going now, Sana. Now!”

Taken aback by her grandmother's sharp words, Sana just nodded. Her grandmother never yelled or raised her voice--except that one time. What was going on?

“Okay, Gigi.” Sana forced a smile and gave a nervous chuckle. “We can watch movies. I am not going into the flower shop until tomorrow afternoon.”

Also with a forced smile, Gigi nodded and moved to pick up the stacks of money on the coffee table. Sana noticed that she hesitated before touching the bills.

Money in hand, Gigi noticeably exhaled and cheerily said, “Up, up, Sana.”

After grabbing her phone, Sana led the way to her grandmother’s suite on the second floor. Spacious and palatial, the suite consisted of three parts: a bedroom, a sitting room, and a balcony. Gigi referred to it as her boudoir.

After a quick shower, Sana dressed for bed and joined her grandmother in the sitting room. An uneasy tension settled in the air as the pair pretended to focus on the romcom playing on the flatscreen television, but they were both turning the day’s events over in their minds.

Around midnight, Sana brushed Gigi’s cheek with a kiss and gave her shoulder a squeeze. She laid in bed and, after a few minutes, drifted to sleep. The sound of the movie would have typically been distracting, but, tonight, it helped to drown out her own thoughts and the sight of her grandmother’s worried face.

Weak rays of sunshine fell across the bed and Sana stirred. Once fully awake, yesterday’s troubling memories came flooding back to her. “Please let today be better,” Sana thought as she sat up straight and began calling out to her grandmother.

Gigi gave no response, so Sana padded sleepily across the well-crafted wooden floors and leaned over her grandmother who was still lying on the couch in the sitting room. Something about the slump of the older woman’s body drew alarm and Sana called loudly once again. Not receiving an answer, she quickly closed the distance between them and shook Gigi vigorously. Sana knew her grandmother was no longer there, but she continued to shake, poke, and prod, hoping desperately for some sign of life.

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A change in terrain brought Sana back to the present. She could only deal with one thing at a time and, no matter what, she was going to get out of this situation alive. The van had left its paved path and was now sliding over gravel. The gravel pelted the sides of the van and heightened Sana’s already racing heart. She could not see out of the van’s two back windows, so she still had no idea where she was. Think Sana! Think!

The engine shut off and she felt her kidnappers leave their seats as the weight in the van shifted. With no warning, the back doors of the vehicle were snatched open and a blaring light filled the cavernous space. Sana squinted, desperately trying to make out the figure in front of her.

It was the man who had stood at the foot of the Rogers' driveway.