Love, Money and a Little Black Book

Love, Money and a Little Black Book

Chapter 1

The tune of Ripples from her cellphone, coupled with the blaring sound of sirens and other New York noise, pulled Lisa out of her sleep. Her first thought was to check on David Jr aka DJ, but she remembered he’d spent the night at her mother’s house. She stole a few additional precious moments waiting for the snooze to do what snooze does. It was set for five minutes, but it rushed by, and it felt more like two minutes instead of five. The tune of Ripples started chiming once again, and Lisa knew this time she had to get up and out of the bed. She leaned over to retrieve her watch from the charger. The picture on her night stand made her pause. Memories flooded her mind, and then came the tears. Today was another anniversary. This day seemed to come around so quickly, and contrary to everyone’s advice, the pain didn’t seem to lessen. The day of David’s death, always took precedence over their wedding day, and once again this year was no different. It had been three years since the accident, but to Lisa it felt like yesterday. His death was so sudden. He got into a car accident on his way to work. A car rear-ended him, and he ran into the car in front of him. The person that rear-ended David survived, but the woman in the car David hit, didn’t survive. The smell of Armani lingered in the apartment as if he was still there. Lisa was crying so loudly, she almost missed an incoming phone call. The caller Id read Diner. Lisa wiped her tears and answered.

“Hello” Lisa sniffled

“Good Morning Lisa. Wait, are you okay. Are you crying?”

“Morning Natalie. I’m okay. Today is the anniversary of David’s death, so…Is everything okay at the diner?”

“Everything is fine, just wanted to make sure you were still covering for Tasha.”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

“Okay”

“Okay, bye”

Lisa kissed David’s photo and went to take a shower.

Chapter 2

“Mother this is ridiculous”

“Liam, don’t argue with me about this. My mind is made up.”

“But mother do you have to do it this way, surely there’s another way to go about it.”

“You may be right, but this is the way I choose to do it.” Lucinda leaned back and placed her small frail hand over her chest, as she put emphasis on the word I.

Liam was prepared to continue his rebuttal, but his mother’s raised eyebrows and pursed lips caused him to reconsider.

“Let’s enjoy our breakfast shall we.” Lucinda sipped her orange juice. Liam knew this was her way of dismissing the conversation.

Enjoy our breakfast thought Liam. He glanced around the diner, and shook his head in disgust. He didn’t know why his mother insisted on these monthly visits. They were having breakfast at a diner in his mother’s old neighborhood in Queens, New York. Lucinda didn’t grow up with a lot of money, but now was a different story. She was wealthy due to making wise investment choices over the years. Lucinda vowed when she made a better life for herself, she wouldn’t forget where she came from. Hence the monthly visits to the old neighborhood. Liam drove her from The Hamptons to Queens one Saturday out of the month. Liam and his mother sat in silence in the small booth in the back of the diner. He made sure they always sat there because it was away from the other customers. Lucinda did what she always does. After finishing her meal, she leaned against the hard leather seat, sipped her black coffee, and stared out the window. This part seemed to take forever to Liam. He waited patiently for the signals, as always. Whenever she sat her cup down and reached for her purse, Liam knew it was time to go. The signal was given, and Liam bounced out of the booth like a rabbit, but not before leaving a one hundred dollar tip on the table. This was another thing his mother insisted upon doing -- leaving a large tip.

Lisa pulled the diner door open, as the bells above chimed loudly. She was preoccupied on her phone; therefore she didn’t realize she almost ran right into the older woman exiting the diner. Lucinda covered her heart and jumped back as to not get knocked down.

“Watch where you’re going. You almost ran into my mother.” Liam retorted

“I I I’m sorry ma’am”

“Well if you were paying attention and not on your phone.”

Although Liam was the one speaking, Lisa focused her attention on Lucinda, and apologized once more.

“It’s okay, and please excuse my son for being rude.”

Lucinda smiled and walked away.

Chapter 3

Lisa put on her apron and got to work. She started with the booth in the back, and was startled at the amount of the tip. Lisa had eaten at this diner, and she knew the food wasn’t good enough for a one hundred dollar tip. Natalie agreed to split the tip with her since she helped out with cleaning the table. Lisa also spotted a black notebook left in the seat. The diner started to get busy. Lisa place the black book in her bag. She would go through it later to see who it belonged to. Saturdays always seem to go by quickly at the diner. When Lisa got back home, the first thing she did was call her mother to check on DJ. Her mother said DJ had a good day, but more importantly, he had a pain free day. DJ was only two years old when his father died, therefore he had no memory of him, but Lisa made it a point to tell him stories about how great his father was. After telling DJ how much she loved him, the next thing Lisa did was check her messages.

You have 5 new messages the automated voice announced. All the calls were unimportant, until she heard Dr. Miller’s voice. Dr. Miller was DJ’s doctor. Lisa had been waiting for this call. She was praying it was good news.

“Hi Mrs Reynolds, this is Dr. Miller. I’m calling with David Jr’s test results. Unfortunately, the umbilical hernia still hasn’t closed. Since he’s five years old now, it may be best we revisit the option for surgery. Please call me Monday at your earliest convenience. Thank you”

Lisa sat down on the couch. She and Dr. Miller had discussed DJ possibly having surgery, if the hernia didn’t close up on its own. The surgery was approximately five thousand dollars. The problem with that was, she didn’t have the money, but she didn’t want her son to be in pain. Lisa didn’t know how she was going to get the money, which is why she was praying the hernia would go away as DJ got older.

The following day, Lisa attended a spoken word event. She needed guidance on what to do about DJ’s situation, and normally events like that helped her. A young lady did a piece on honesty, and for some reason it resonated with Lisa. She didn’t gain any insight on her situation, but nonetheless she enjoyed it. She spent the rest of the day thinking about the conversation she and Dr. Miller would have Monday. Lisa remembered she was off Monday, and her mother agreed to keep DJ a few more days, so that relieved some of her stress. Lisa woke up early Monday, even though she didn’t have to work. She decided to go ahead and get her day started, and that meant a cup of coffee. Without turning on the lights, Lisa got out of bed to go to the kitchen. She almost fell face first, as she tripped over her work bag. All the items fell out of the bag, and the black book slid across the floor. Lisa hobbled toward the light switch. When she flicked the light on, she couldn’t believe her eyes. There were brand new crisp one hundred dollar bills all over her floor from when she kicked her bag. Lisa realized the hundred dollar bills came out of the black notebook. She retrieved the bills and the notebook from the floor. She opened the book and saw the note.

If found please return to Lucinda Wright. The address was a home in The Hamptons. Lisa looked inside the envelope the hundreds fell out of, and there were more hundred dollar bills inside. She neatly laid the bills out on her bed and started to count. It was five thousand dollars. Lisa knew this was her answer. Now DJ can have the surgery, she thought, but then she remembered the young lady from the spoken word event, and her poetic words about honesty. Although Lisa wanted to keep the money, she knew the right thing to do was to return it to the rightful owner. Lisa called Natalie and asked if she could drive her out to The Hamptons. She told Natalie everything that happened. Natalie agreed to pick her up in an hour.

Chapter 4

Lisa and Natalie arrived in The Hamptons late that afternoon. When they pulled up to the house, Lisa started having second thoughts. As nice as the house was, she came to the resolution she needed the money way more than they did, but she was already there and it was too late to change her mind now. Natalie waited in the car, while Lisa rang the doorbell. Liam answered the door. He didn’t recognize her at first, but then she became familiar.

“Oh you’re the woman that almost knocked my mother over at the diner.”

Lisa didn’t pay attention at the diner, but Liam was very handsome.

She decided to be professional, so she ignored the comment.

“Is Lucinda your mother?”

“Yes, she is”

“Is she home?”

“Yes, she is” Lucinda responded as she walked down the spiral staircase.

“Well Liam, let her in.”

Liam stepped aside and motioned for her to enter. Lisa followed them into the formal living room. Lucinda gestured for Lisa to have a seat. She sat down and opened her bag. When Lucinda saw the black book, she smiled.

“See, I told you Liam”

“Yeah, but is the money still inside?”

Lisa handed the black book to Lucinda, and she quickly opened it. She found the envelope inside with the five thousand dollars. This made Lucinda smile even the more. She explained to Lisa she and Liam had a wager. Liam argued there was no hope for mankind, and the world was getting so greedy and wicked. Lucinda agreed, but she had a glimmer of hope there was at least one person in the world who was good, honest and kind-hearted. That’s when she came up with the test of the black book.

“So what was the wager, if I may ask?”

“If someone returned the black book, I would give them a reward, and also Liam would have to find a nice young lady to go on a date with. If no one returned the black book, then I would have to give the reward to Liam instead”

Liam glanced at his mother, and walked out of the room. He knew she was getting ready to tell the story, and he wasn’t in the mood to hear it.

“See, Liam lost his wife three years ago in a car accident. Someone rear-ended a car that was in back of her, and in turn that car rear-ended her. To my understanding, the man in the car that hit Liam’s wife died as well.”

Lisa was speechless.

“Liam could you please bring the reward in here?”

Liam entered the room and handed Lisa an envelope. Lisa stood and thanked Lucinda. When Lisa got in the car she opened the envelope. It was a check for $20,000 along with Liam’s phone number.