The Little Black Book

Have you ever encountered money that made you feel safe while you held it, practically carrying it like a baby? When a bag of money falls at your feet, with no exchange, you have to take it. With this money, it comes with a catch or a sacrifice.

I'm just a regular guy, a guy who works part-time at gas station and lives with his girlfriend at her mothers' house. I'm 28 years old with no motivation to do better in life. I live in a town where no one has motivation to do better in life, a sleepy town of lazy ambitions. As I sparked a cigarette, walking on my way home from work, a man ran into me, knocked me right on my ass. I shouted, "Hey, you asshole, watch where you're...." I took one look at him, he's been shot few times on the chest, beaten up, you couldn't even tell how old he was in the face. He carried a small navy blue duffle bag, with an bright orange strap and dropped it at my feet. "It's not mine! They're after me!" He yelled. I got up and stared at him, confused. "It's evil. It's not my problem anymore. Run!" I grabbed the bag and ran. He ran the opposite direction. I didn't ask him no questions, I just took it. As I ran, I took a left down an alley, I turned back and I see a purple pimped out Cadillac, with gold rims and blacked-out windows. As it passes by me, I hear gun shots. I continued to run down the alley all the way home.

When you have an adrenaline rush, you can't really process what took place, and I felt like I was on fire, in a good way. I was in such shock, I didn't even come in through the front door, I hopped the fence to the backyard and jumped through my girlfriends' window. My girlfriend, Kat is 3 months pregnant and smoking a spliff, while rolling another. "You could've entered the front door, you live here now," She said. I stare at her bug eyed, with sweat dripping into my eyes like eye drops. "Dude, what's wrong? " she asked. I grip the duffle bag tightly, and say "A man was killed, and he gave me this, I don't know what's in it, but he says it's evil." She squints at me confused. I sit on the bed beside her, I grab the bag and unzip it slowly. "What's evil in there?" She laughs. As I open the bag, there's nothing but money, $20,000 in cash. She grabs my hand and grips it. The sweat in my hair drips into my mouth, somewhat hydrating me. Staring at this money, it made me feel all kinds of good feelings; relief, excitement, and powerful. Kat grabs a handful of cash and kisses it. As I reach in the bag, I felt something hard, and fleshy. A little black book, with a leather surface. As I open it, it's like a miniature planner, filled schedule book from 2004. "Kurtis, we are rich! We can finally leave this place and go anywhere." Kat shouts. "Shhhhhh! Don't shout that out loud." I whisper. This poor girl, 21 years old and has never seen more than $500 in her entire life. I knew this money isn't a lot, but the connection I felt was unnatural. I didn't want the bag to leave my sight, I felt an instant regret showing Kat. Now, she feels obligated to it, like it's hers too. But it's not, it's mine. "Let's just close this up and come up with a plan." I suggested. She looks offended as I zip the bag back up. "We don't need a plan, Kurtis. We can just leave." she suggests. I leave the little black book out of the bag, and hold the bag by my side. "Let's discuss what we should do first. we'll leave early in the morning." I tell her. I grab her face and kiss her.

Our family dinner contains surrounding the TV in the living room, with TV trays in front of us eating canned veggies, with Kraft mac n cheese and Shake 'n' Bake porkchops. I stay behind in the kitchen with my bag of cash, reading the little black book. As I turn the bloodied first few pages is a scheduled out calendar from 2004. As I turn some pages, I come across a page dated May 2007, " If you are reading this, stop. Get rid of the bag. Temptation will kill you." That's odd, I thought. Turn another page, "Devils' money does not belong to you." I turn to one of the beginning pages, "I have carried this bag by myside for 2 years and have never spent a dime of it. I never will. This bag is my pet, and everyone wants to take my pet. Why? This bag makes me feel whole. My wife didn't even make me feel complete...." Turn a few more pages, "You're carrying a curse." I can feel Kats' eyes burning into me from the living room. She gets up from the couch and sits on me at the kitchen table. I shut the book, and stare up at her. "Are we gonna talk now, about what we are gonna do? I need to know now, for the sake of the baby," she says. "I was thinking we can take the Greyhound to Vegas and gamble some money, possibly make some more money. We can start our lives out there," I reply. Her response, "That is the stupidest idea! I want to go to Miami." I nodded and agreed with her. But little does she know, I'm leaving without her.

As we lie in bed, Kat is sleeping with her back to me and I am obsessively reading the pages in the little black book and still gripping my duffle bag full of cash. I know reading these documented entries should disturb me, it's obvious this book is telling me to get rid of this bag of $20,000 dollars. But why? A random guy throwing a bag of money at you and say take it, what's wrong with that? I reach over Kat and grab a sharpie from the nightstand, I write in the last pages, "I will do better than the previous fools." I put the little black book back into the bag, check the time on my phone and set the alarm for 3 am. By the time Kat wakes up, I will be on my way to Vegas. I slowly fall asleep and dream of me gambling this money and making it into millions.

I feel a light kiss on my cheek and blood in my mouth. I wake up instantly, the sun shining on my face. I'm trying to gasp for air, but all I taste is blood. I stare up at Kat standing over my body. The knife drops, "I'm sorry Kurtis, but I turned off your alarm clock. I can't let you just take off without me. Did you really think the discussion we had last night made me believe we were leaving together? You were obsessing over a journal, when you should be obsessing over the money and our future." She grabs the duffle bag from under me as I bleed out slowly, she slit my throat in my sleep. "If I ever came across this amount of money, in a random circumstance, I would've left town. I'll put this money into great use for me and the baby." She killed me. Just like that, over this amount of money. I didn't even make it out with the money in 48 hours.

As Kat walks out of the house with the navy blue duffle bag and a backpack. She turns down the corner, the purple pimped out Cadillac with gold rims and blacked out windows, slowly follows behind her. Kat notices the car and stops. The car stops next to her, the window rolls down, and a man speaks, "You need a ride?" Kat nods, and opens the backdoor. As the purple Cadillac drives away, you hear Kats muffled screams. At least, I don't feel that much embarrassed, she didn't even make it with the money for 20 mins let alone a block away from home.