Who's Professor Moleskine

At last, we arrived at the senior trip destination: Barcelona, Spain. One-by-one all the seniors trudged sleepily to their hotel rooms. As soon as I enter the room, I collapse face-first onto the bed fully clothed from my head to my shoes. I could feel myself drifting to sleep, then suddenly the undesired sound of knocking came from the door. My room buddies turn their glances to me due to the unspoken rule: the closest hotel buddy to the door opens it. Reluctantly, the words "Who is it?" leave the left corner of my mouth in a groan.

"It's Professor Moleskine", replied the best professor in the world.

"Coming!", I begrudgingly respond as the bed clings to me harder. With as much energy that I can muster up, I achingly roll out of the bed and trudge towards the door.

"Hello, Valencia. Hello ladies. I hope I am not bothering you at the moment." Professor Moleskine timidly hoped. Professor Moleskine always speaks in a bashful manner even though she knows she's everyone's favorite professor.

"No, no, not at all. I just wanted to get to bed so I can be ready for our excursions tomorrow," I explained. "We are all excited to explore Barcelona".

"I understand. As this is our first night here I wanted to give my favorite students a gift." Professor Moleskine gave each of us one little black notebook. "Since you're no longer considered my students, I can give you this. Write, draw, or whatever you would like. Just remember the books did not come from me. Good night!" Just like that Professor Moleskine turned with her index finger to her mouth as if it should be a secret and left.

Crawling back into bed, I doze off thinking about how odd the professor left and her statement: "Remember the books did not come from me..."

The next morning Amber, Brittaney, Cicely, Kiara, and I prep to leave for our first day in Barcelona. We chat the entire morning about the sights, men, and food we may experience today. In the excitement of it all, I realized I left my new black notebook in the room. Fortunately, the trip starts in 15 minutes. Quickly, Kiara and I returned to the room, grab my notebook, and head down the staircase. As we descend the stairs Kiara asks, “Did you see Professor Guaca-Moleskine at breakfast? I wanted to thank her for the gift.”

“Hmmm, I think I saw her, but I honestly wasn’t fully awake during breakfast” I shamefully admitted. “I’m still tired from the flight yesterday”. The professor always talks about the importance of eating a healthy meal in the morning and its benefits to the human body. She’s such a know-it-all but a few classes with her and her charm infects you and you want to become a healthier version of yourself.

When we head backstairs, the group is still waiting in the lobby of the hotel. Kiara and I are the last few stragglers to arrive. Professor MaryBeth Wells approaches us solemnly. “Please grab your roommates and follow me.”

“Man!”, Kiara exclaims, “Everybody else is leaving now!”

“Can’t this wait until we return? It’s the first day to explore!” Brittaney exhales exasperated.

“I know right? I want to take pictures, see some men, and enjoy Spain,” Cicely lists her disappointment finger-by-finger.

I turn to Amber to ask, “What is going on?”. With a shrug, we all follow Professor Wells down to a conference room in the hotel. After three hours of calling us in one-by-one, it is finally my turn. Entering the room I see in the center of the room a table with a chair. The man instructs me to sit in the chair. Before I get a chance to settle onto the chair I’m bombarded with questions from both the man and woman.

“Have you seen Professor Moleskine today? When was the last time you saw her?” asks Agent Womane.

“Who is Professor Moleskine to you?” Agent Mann questions me.

“Does the term Dub-K mean anything to you?” asks Agent Womane.

“Hold on, who are you? Why are you asking about Prof Moleskine?” I ask bluntly.

“My apologies after 3 hours of interviewing your friends, I forgot the introductions. You’re Valencia Jackson, this is Agent Depudi Womane, and I’m Agent Mai N. Mann. Now back to business, we are currently looking for Ms. Moleskine.” Agent Mai N. Mann leans in towards me as if to inspect me closely.

“So Ms. Jackson, you said the last time you saw Ms. Moleskine was last night, correct?” inquires Agent Womane.

“Yes, that’s right. She came to our room to-” pausing to think whether I should tell them about the book she gave us. But she told us to keep it a secret. Why would she tell us to keep a little black notebook a secret? Whatever the reason, I don’t see the harm in not mentioning the book.

“She came to do what?” Agent Mann encourages me to continue.

“Oh, to wish us a pleasant trip in Barcelona” I look down at my Apple Watch. “Which hasn’t been too pleasant as I’ve been sitting here for almost 4 hours. I’m missing out on experiencing the vibrant culture of Spain. May I go now?” I ask politely annoyed.

The Agents stare at me and with one glance at each other they dismiss me. “Before you go, take my card,” Agent Mann hands me her business card. “If you see Ms. Moleskine please call us right away.”

Why are they asking so many questions about Professor Moleskine? She is the most gentle and compassionate person I have met.

Hungry and annoyed I meet up with my girls in the hotel lobby again. We decide to try a restaurant in the city since our first day was a dud thanks to those random agents. Amber and Cicely tell us about a delicious restaurant they heard other groups from our school discussing: Elisabet’s Restaurant. I usher everyone out the door realizing I have only remember eaten breakfast today. Luckily, Elisabet’s was within walking distance from the hotel. The people we pass by are searching for the source of the gurgling sounds. They giggle as they realize the weird noise is coming from my stomach as Brittaney blurts out, “What’s that noise? Valencia is that your stomach?”.

“Yes. It. Is. Now let’s go find some food!” I wail as I cradle my empty obnoxious rumbling stomach.

Dinner at Elisabet’s was amazing the food was out of this world. My stomach was so grateful that dinner in Barcelona was like a meal in heaven. Now that my hunger has been sated, Cicely and I set out to see more of the city at night. Kiara and Brittaney wave goodbye as they toast their wine glasses together. “Salud!” we hear over the clinks of the wine glasses.

The night air is a bit windy but the weather is still warm to my skin. The excitement of being in another country made Cicely dance down the block. Somehow she got me to dance with her. At the corner, I feel the hairs on my neck start to lift. My intuition tells me that not only are people watching us, but something else is afoot. Perhaps someone is following us. This feeling has never brought me any good outcomes. Cicely notices that I am no longer dancing with her and asks, “What’s wrong, what happened?”.

“Cicely”, I say as calmly as I can muster, “I think someone is following us”.

“Following us? Like Kiara and Brittaney?” she asks in disbelief.

“No.” my stern reply lets Cicely know the severity of the situation. “At the next corner, we need to run back to the hotel. Understand?”

Cicely nods slowly to reassure me that she understands me. As soon as we turn the corner, Cicely takes off towards the hotel. Shocked by her running ability, I push myself even harder in hopes of catching up to her. Running towards the hotel I feel the hairs on my neck lift even higher. Am I hearing more footsteps behind me? I turn to take a quick peek and see two figures dressed in black racing towards me. Suddenly, I feel Cicely’s track and field skills transfer into my legs and a new burst of energy sends me flying through the hotel front doors. I don’t stop until I reunite with Cicely. We hurdled up the staircase to the third floor.

Cicely gets to the door first but forgot she gave her key to Brittaney to hold. My adrenaline has my palms sweaty and my arms shaking. I try to ignore it so I can open the door to safety. As quickly as we opened the door we shut it and locked it just the same.

“Leave the lights off,” I command quietly to Cicely. Two minutes pass by before we hear continuous banging on the front door. After 10 minutes, the banging stops. Afraid of what could be on the other side of the door, I wait a few more minutes before I go to the door. Who could have been at the door? Brittaney and Kiara have one key so they could have opened the door with ease. Slowly I reach for the door handle.

“Wait!”, yells Cicely scaring me more than the thought of what is behind the door. “Aren’t you going to ask ‘Is someone there’?” Her timid tone made me question my next actions. Do I just open the door or pose the question of who is behind the door. Finally, I yank the door open, done being afraid of creepy shadows. To our surprise, no one was there except for a little yellow envelope.

“What do you think we should do Cicely?”, I ask.

“I think we should open it,” she responds rather quickly. “Read it out loud.”

“Ok, it says: Tell Moleskine she has 24 hours to show up with the packages, or else.” I finish reading and flip the letter over to confirm I wasn’t missing any other details.

“What is up with Guacamoleskine--I mean Prof. Moleskine?”, Cicely wonders.

Confused, unable to understand why everyone is searching for Professor Moleskine. I knew we were close but I guess I didn’t know her at all. Tired yet wide awake I decide to wind down by writing in the journal Professor Moleskine gifted us. The book tumbles down to the ground. My journal hits the floor and a stack of $100 bills scatter across the floor. After counting the bills three times, the total was $20,000. What is $20,000 doing in my notebook, is this why they’re after Professor Moleskine? So many questions left unanswered and the biggest one of all: who is Professor Moleskine?