The Cassette Tape

I'm still learning how to use this cassette player, I sighed, struggling to force the tape inside this cassette. "Tony, have you tried flipping the tape upside down?" asked Mr. Santos in front of the class. I laughed and said no while I placed it on my desk. My 7th-grade class and I went on a field trip today to this junkyard to find things we never knew existed, and this was something I came across. My best friends since 2nd grade Christian and Andrew both found odd items as well but nothing like mine. As the class got louder full of excitement the bell rang for us to go. "Class don't forget Monday to turn in your paper about what you discovered at the junkyard. And Jamie please don't have your college sister write your paper again, make sure you write it yourself or it will be counted as a zero." The whole class laughed as they grabbed their backpacks and headed out the door while I stayed and approached Mr. Santo's desk. "Mr. Santos, how will I be able to listen to this? The headphones I have at home are broken." He stood up smiled and reached in his desk drawer, he handed me a pair. "Be sure to bring these back in perfect condition please." I nodded and thanked him.

Christian and Andrew were waiting for me in the hall while I connected the headphones to the player. "I'm surprised he didn't assign you more homework for the weekend," said Andrew as we headed out the school's front doors. "Yeah, me too, but what exactly are you going to write about though" asked Christian as we exited out the school down to the bike rack. "Guys I don't know I mean how did people even use this thing?" I asked unlocking my bike. "My mom said she used that back when she was in high school, but I think she sold it" said Christian. "Hmmm I'll figure it out," I said as I hopped on my bike. "The last one to the ice cream shop has to pay! I yelled as I sped off down the sidewalk. "Hey no fair you guys know my bike is slow" shouted Andrew. We all raced each other up the street to the small ice cream shop near our Middle School. As we pulled up to the shop, Andrew arrived last and tossed his bike to get in line. His uncle owns the shop so we all know he's have to pay 5 bucks for all of us. As Christian and I sat down outside at one of the tables I pulled out the cassette player, placed the tape in correctly, and pressed rewind. Once it stopped, I pressed play, at first, we couldn't hear anything but then we heard a man's voice. So I paused the tape player.

I waved at Andrew to come over to the table, he handed us our bowls and sat down so I pressed play again. "My name is Maxwell, on July 1996 my house caught on fire at 8410 Oak Crest and I lost everything that I owned, even my precious black book. This book holds something dear to my heart. This journal had a $150,000 check from my grandfather and now it's all gone. Sigh, all I could grab was my emergency backpack. My backyard however does have a shed but I lost the keys last year, but I have a strong feeling that my journal could be in one of those boxes. I cannot get back onto the property so if you happen to find this tape and recover my black journal, I will deeply repay you. I now live at 1263 Oak Ridge Lane." The tape cut off and all of us looked at each other in complete shock. My eyes got so big that I felt like they were going to pop out. Christian was so shocked his gum fell into his ice cream and Andrew got up pacing back and forth fast.

"How exactly are we supposed to get the journal if they haven't built anything on that piece of land??" I asked as I stood up. I shook my head and walked to the sidewalk and looked up the street in a daze. "I think it's best if we search Mr. Tucker's bookstore first, he always has strange books and finds old ones all the time," said Christian as he continued to eat his ice cream. "That sounds like a plan, let's go there first, and if we can't find anything we'll have to go to the abandoned property," I said as I walked back over to the table. Andrew still hasn't said anything, and I was getting a little nervous, because I know he's mapping out a plan in his head. "What we do know is that everyone who's ever stepped foot on that property has always ended up hurt. Like last year when Bradley and his boys went there and Chris sprained his ankle. So, if we do this we'd have to gear up" he said while still pacing back and forth. We all agreed and did our group handshake. After we ate, we rode off to Mr. Tucker's bookstore which was close to the street we live on.

We hooked our bikes to the rack and entered the store, I honestly forgot about how odd it smelt in here. And the lighting was so bright that we had to put on our sunglasses. "For an old guy you would think he'd turn down these lights before he goes blind," said Christian shaking his head as he walked over to the lost and found section. Andrew and I walked over to the counter to speak to Mr. Tucker who we thought was asleep. "Umm Mr. Tucker? Are awake" I asked squinting under my sunglasses. "Yeah, we're wondering if you came across any black journals or books lately?" asked Andrew as he leaned over the counter. He stepped back and looked at me and shrugged. "I think he's in a deep sleep to be honest because he usually yells at his customers when they walk in." I laughed "That's so true, like who wants to be yelled at when entering a bookstore." I said. We both turned around and walked towards Christian who was digging so far deep in the box that all we could see was his superman boxers. "Did you find anything Christian??" I asked helping him out of the box. "I did actually, I found a black journal." Andrew walked over and grabbed the journal and started filliping through the pages. While I helped Christian out the box, Andrew looked around twice and whispered "This is it" as he pointed to the journal. Christian & I both leaned in and we all stared at each other. "Bro this is it! We are about to be hero's!" I whispered. We all did our happy dances, placed the rest of the items inside the lost and found box, and thanked Mr. Tucker although he was still sleeping.

Christian checked Goggle Maps for the address Mr.Maxwell now lives at, I put the journal in my backpack, and we took off on our bikes. Andrew played his Bluetooth speaker from his backpack, while we sang along to the songs playing. The sun was glaring, the wind felt nice and we could see people outside enjoying their Friday afternoon too. We finally arrived at the house which looked as if a rich person lived here because there were a lot the nice cars in the driveway. "What if the guy doesn't remember about the journal?" asked Andrew while he hopped off his bike. "I don't think so I mean look at all these sweet rides he has" exclaimed Christian as he walked up to the house. "Woah, slow down guys let's not assume anything just yet," I said as I put my bike down. We walked up to the front porch and I rang the doorbell. "Tony, I hope this is him because this will probably make him cry" Christian said smiling.

The door finally opened and it was an older man who looked like he was in his 50's. He was a tall buff African American man, who seemed as if he works out even while sleeping. "How can I help you, young fellas?" he asked. Without saying anything I reached inside my backpack and pulled out the cassette player and pressed play. As it was playing, I also pulled out the journal. "Are you Mr. Maxwell the man that's on this tape?" I asked. He froze and didn't budge at all. "Sir, can you hear me" Andrew asked waving his hand in front of his face." The man shook his head and started smiling. "Yes, that's me! How did you boys even find this tape and the journal?! It's been years since I've last seen this thing!" he said in full of joy. "I honestly thought I'd never see this journal again. Before my Grandfather passed this was his life savings he wanted me to have. You boys really just made my day. Thank you so much". We saw his eyes getting watery, so I handed him his journal. As we started to explain everything to him, he sat down on the porch and started sobbing.

After going into details from our field trip until now, he stood up pulled us all in for a group hug, and told us to hang tight as he went inside his house. After about 5 minutes later he came back out with 3 white envelopes, he made us each promise that we wouldn't open these until we got home. He watched us as we placed the envelopes into our backpacks and as we said our goodbyes. "Don't be a stranger come by and chat anytime I'm usually fixing on my cars so I don't mind teaching you boys at all.' We won't" we said as we waved goodbye. "Dude! This has been one of the best days of our lives!" I yelled. We all shouted and blasted up the music. Since we all live on the same street we slowed down and agreed to facetime each other tonight so we could open the envelopes together.

At 10:32 pm my boys' group face timed me, I had the envelope sitting on my desk patiently waiting to open it. "Okay let's count down from five and we'll open it," said Christian. I started to count down "5,4,3,2,1." We all opened our envelopes. We all shouted loudly "we're going to be rich!!" I yelled. I jumped out of bed and did my favorite dance move while my boys did there's. Mr.Maxwell gave us a total of $20,000 which was split into 3 ways. On a small piece of paper he wrote "Here's to the neighborhood hero's who saved the day! You each get a total of $20,000 divided between the three of you. Spend it wisely" attached was the check. "We can for sure use this money to buy nice outfits for High School and have gear for basketball season," said Christain. "Or hear me out, we can invest it in the stock market now and watch it grow and have way more," said Andrew. "Tony, what do you think? they both asked me. I raised my window up and leaned forward a little and replied "First let's give back to our community, invest in some stocks and then buy some new outfits and gear. How's that sound?" I asked. They both agreed to the idea, we talked a little longer and ended the call. I stared out my window and thanked God for allowing us to be a blessing to Mr.Maxwell today.