Aida & Seven Tasks

Eee eee, the bed cried as she dove onto her twin sized bed.

“Ahhh,” she stared at the ceiling with her arms sprawled like silly string, and she took in one of those deep breaths where your spine gently curls and your body sinks into sweet surrender.

Bizz bizz~

Her eyes darted to the trail of clothes backing all the way to the door. “Oh my god,” she rumbled, rolled herself off the bed, crawled to the phone by her pants, and layed on the floor while answering the phone.

“Nyob zoo(Hello in Hmong)! Hi, Daddy.”

“Nyob zoo! How was your first day back at school?”

“It’s like the usual. We just went over the syllabus. Nothing much.”

“And work?”

“It’s, you know. There are some nice customers, and then the needy and rude ones. But it’s all right. Nothing I can’t handle.”

“That’s my girl.”

“Uh, Daddy. I’m kind of tired, and my teacher already assigned some homework for us to do, so I’m going to finish it and then head to bed.”

“Okay, I’ll see y-” Beep. She turned to her side, shut her eyes, and the day faded away.

Bizz Bizz~ Still groggy, Aida feels around for her phone.

“What.”

“Aida, it’s 7:32. Where are you?”

“Today is my day off, and I wouldn’t plan anything that early.”

“You said you’d fill in fo-.” Aida’s eyes expanded like the Big Bang and she sprung up.

“AH, shoot shoot. On my way.” At the speed of light she ran downstairs in her work clothes from the day before, through the lobby, and out the door into the piercing morning air.

“Holy, Foster’s Freeze is it cold” Aida roared as she ran across the street to Rory’s Restaurant.

“You’re late” Rory said disappointingly as she shook her head “You have a friend at table 3.” Out of breath, Aida weezed “Ok, got it.” She walked through the restaurant aisle and while doing so tied up her long black hair. Before she got to Table 3 she already announced herself.

“Hello, ‘friend.’ What can I get you today?” An older man in his early forties in a slim fitted tailored black suit turned towards her.

“I would like a moment of your time ma’am.”

“Woah woah woah, I’m not that old” she chuckled “my name is Aida.” He gestured to her to sit down. Aida furrowed her brows in suspicion.

“Sir, I am not comfortable with that, and who are you exactly? ”

“I’m here on an inquiry from my boss.”

“Who's your boss? And what inquiry are you here for?” The strangely kept man pulled out a small black notebook from the side of his seat.

“For you.” They both stared at each other in until the man broke the awkward silence with “This will explain everything. Goodluck.” Then, the man got up and left. Aida watched the man leave with a “what just happened” kind of look on her face.

It’s midnight, Aida is curled up on her bed and staring at the small black notebook across from her. She says aloud “I don’t know anyone who would be this sketch. What can be so important that you need a delivery man? It’s just a notebook...right? But he said ‘Goodluck.’ That can’t be good. I don’t see why he couldn’t just tell me what this is about. It would be less creepy. ”

She lays on her stomach by the notebook contemplating.

“Okay, here we go.”

Dear Reader,

My name is R.A. Wiseman. If you are reading this, I am dead…

“Oh god. Wow, that was straight forward.”

And I need you to do something for me. Please. This notebook has all the instructions you need to complete each task.

“Each task?”

You must complete them in order with no questions asked and not read ahead. I don’t wish to force this upon you, so if you don’t want to do it. All I ask is you to burn this book. If you decide to continue, do know that this is based on an honor system. You can leave or not do it whenever you no longer want to. Just burn this whenever you no longer wish to continue. I’m leaving this up to you. If you trust me, turn the page.

“So I’m left with a man’s debt and now I AM the delivery man.”

Aida felt astonished with how the man, whom she didn’t know, tasked her with something that felt illegal, especially with how undercover he was about everything. Aida stared at the page and looked away, but her eyes always came back to the bottom right corner of the page that was already slightly curled as if to tease her. She flips the page hoping curiosity doesn’t kill this cat.

Task #1: Quit your job.

It's the next day, and Aida didn’t sleep a wink last night because she was weighing the pros and cons. She was working two jobs and going to school, and the task didn’t specify to quit both of them. You see, Aida has always been the kind of girl that once she made up her mind she won’t look back or let anything stop her, so she walked into Rory’s and quit. She left the restaurant with an exhilarating excitement mixed with a little bit of worry.

“I’m really trusting you Wiseman. Don’t get me killed.”

With the notebook opened in her hand, she flips to the next page.

Task #2: Down by the lake where the lonely willow tree weeps, a drowning ruby carries the key that you seek.

“Okay, ‘Hemingway’. To Willow Park we go.”

There was only one willow tree and a lake in the park so she knew where to go, but the willow tree was in the middle of the lake, so she rented a boat and rowed her way there. She walked the perimeter of the land trying to find something anything red in the water. Hours passed and the sun was setting, but still she found nothing. She slumped towards the willow tree with her shoes in hand and as she was eyeing her destination a glint of light blinded her eye.

“Oww ” she muttered in annoyance.

But quickly realizing what it meant she ran towards the glimmer. There was a small hole about three inches in the bottom of the trunk. She reached her fingers into the small space and touched what she knew felt like a keyring. After a couple efforts, she looped it on one of her fingers and shouted relievingly “FINALLY!” With little light left in the day, she headed home.

Task #3: Take the key, go to the train station, and find locker 404.

After school, Aida heads out to find the locker at the Grandiose Station with the key in her pocket. As she’s reading the number on the lockers on the south side and her phone buzzes. It’s her Dad calling again. She’s been avoiding his calls because she doesn’t want to tell him she quit her job and that she is basically on a scavenger hunt for some guy she doesn't even know.

The station is crowded with people so she is weaving around people the best she can while checking the numbers. Seeing only numbers in 100, Aida heads towards the north side of the station. After a set of lockers, she spots locker 404. With a smile on her face, she reaches into her pocket to find that the key isn't there and the smile quickly fades into complete panic. Aida quickly makes an immediate U-turn, bumping into people and people bumping into her, and she’s frantically scanning the floor while retracing her steps. As she does so, her phone rings and to her it doesn’t stop.

“WHAT! I’M BUSY RIGHT NOW! STOP CALLING ME DAD, GOD!”

Aida hangs up the phone and places her phone in her jacket pocket when she hears a clink. The keys were in her other pocket all along. Frustrated and a little guilty, she stomps back to 404, jams the key into the lock, and flings the door open to find a brown paper grocery bag that was folded and taped at the top.

“Are you kidding me.”

She grabs it and shoves it into her backpack.

When Aida gets home she untapes and opens the brown lump and finds a wad of cash that amounts to $20,000. In shock and in awe, she looks at Task #4.

Task #4: On October 1st, go to Winona’s Bakery and buy two dozen cheesecake donuts, tip her $5,000, and drop the donuts off at 404 Lullaby Lane discreetly. DON’T GET CAUGHT.

Aida does so the next day, and she does so swiftly.

Task#5: Go to the oldest antique shop in the city at 5am and ask for Noel. All you have to do is say “Wiseman A.R. 143 package.” He’ll know what to do. Slide a $10,000 check into his cashier when he goes to the back to grab the package. DON’T GET CAUGHT.

“Checkmate my dude” she says to herself proudly while looking at the task.

Task #6: Knock on the door of the previous address and deliver the box to a woman named Elaine.

“And done.”

Aida flipped the page, but instead of a task there was a full page of words:

Thank you. If you got this far, you only have one more task to go. But before you do, I owe you an explanation. You see, the woman at the bakery is someone whom I recently fell in love with, but never got the chance to tell her I love her because I had to be hospitalized due to cancer. I don’t know how much time I have left, but I just know it's not much. The clock is ticking louder and louder. Each breath I take gets weaker and weaker.

The man Noel at the antique store is my brother. We both fell in love with my ex-wife. I married her and had a beautiful daughter, but at the cost of losing my only brother. We haven’t spoken in fifty years.

Then, my wife left me for another man. I love my daughter, and I was so afraid that she would leave me too. I never let her out of my sight. I thought I was protecting her from the world, but by shielding her from the world I also shielded her from the good and beautiful of the world. As she grew up, she and I would fight all the time. Eventually, she left me because I was “suffocating her.” I never listened to what she was saying or feeling, but all she wanted to be was free and independent.

She will always be my little girl, but I forgot that I can’t keep treating her like she is so little. I realize that now, but I already lost everything. All because I was scared and selfish. I chose you Aida Moua because you are good. You are the kind of good I wanted my daughter to see in the world.

Sincerely,

Rodion Augustus (a.k.a GUSS)

Aida gets flashbacks to the past summer when she was an intern. She took care of Guss.

Task #7: on the last page is a small glued orange envelope. This is yours. Thank you.

Aida turns to the last page, opens the envelope, and then she reaches her hand in. She pulls out a check with $10 million dollars and a picture of an elderly man with two thumbs up and on the picture is signed Guss. Her eyes filled with tears.

Aida was staring out the window at the popsicle colored sky when she was interrupted:

“Miss. This is your stop.”

“Yes, thank you.”

She walked up the brick pathway that she knew so well, up onto the porch, and knocked on the door. The door opens.

“Hi, Daddy.”