The Evermore Account

Mary wiped her brow with the back of her sleeve. Despite working at the diner for the past fifteen years, the dinner rush always had her hoping. Her favorite time was late in the evening when there were only a few customers, and she could pack up and head home to see her son, Jaden. His sixth birthday was around the corner and she’d been saving all her tips for a toy and a cake.

“Excuse me, miss” an old man’s croak broke her out of her daydream, “Does it matter where I sit?” He was a whole head shorter than Mary. Wrapped up in an over-sized coat and lengthy scarf, there was more fabric than man. Clutched to his chest, he held a small black notebook.

“No sir, please sit wherever you like.” The diner was practically deserted at this point and Mary’s shift would be ending in an hour. The man settled into his seat shedding the layers used to keep warm in the snowy night. He carefully placed the small black notebook on the table next to him. He placed his order without really looking at the menu. Mary went to get his drink and noticed him pensively thumbing through the notebook.

After he’d finished his plate, Mary reached to pick up the dirty dishes, but the man instinctively placed his hand on top of the small notebook. She didn’t say anything but flashed him a smile and placed the check on the table. Once she left, she glanced over and noticed him scribbling something in the black notebook. Before slipping it into his coat pocket, he pulled some cash out, and placed it on the table. He was standing to leave when a loud shout came from the door of the diner.

“I knew I would find you!” a tall man with a chiseled chin and high cheek bones stood with snowflakes still on his shoulders pointing at the old man. The old man’s face contorted with frustration, but he continued to put on his scarf and started mumbling something to himself. The tall man strode over to him completely ignoring the eyes on him. “Do you know how long I’ve been searching for you in this storm?”

“Peter, it’s been ten years. Don’t blame your stupidity of driving in this storm on me. I know why you are here, and the answer is no -- over my dead body. Now go away.” Peter didn’t seem as hurt by the old man’s words as Mary expected, but instead seemed to match the irritation the old man had.

“Fine. Be like that Dad.” Peter grabbed his father roughly by the arm, “I’m still taking you home and you are going to show me where it is. I checked all the usual spots.”

The old man pulled his arm out of Peter’s grip, “Get off me. I will go when I want to go and go where I want to go.” He then made his way to the door with Peter angerly hovering behind him. As she picked up the money from the table, she noticed something on the ground. It was the small black notebook! In the scuffle, it must have fallen out of the old man’s coat. She scooped it up and rushed to the door to catch them, but they had disappeared into the blizzard.

Mary wondered what was so special about this notebook that the old man held on to it so tightly. She opened the book to find the pages filled with names, dates, and dollar amounts. If this was so important to the old man, she didn’t want to leave the book just laying around. Surely he would return after the storm to claim it. Mary placed the notebook in her bag as she bundled up. It was quite a walk home and she needed to grab some shut eye before the trek back to open the diner in the morning.

Convinced her fingers were permanently frozen, she managed to turn the key and push into her apartment. It looks like grandma let Jaden fall asleep in a pile of blankets on the couch again. He was clutching his stuff bunny, Mr. Floppy Ears. He didn’t even stir as she picked him up to take him to their bed. She crawled into bed and kissed him good night. Even though she was exhausted, her mind turned and turned on what was so important about that small black notebook.

The next day at the diner was busy as usual. Most of the regulars wanted a nice warm cup of coffee after digging themselves out of the snow. Nothing was unusual until a police officer entered accompanied by a very tall man with high cheek bones. “He was sitting at that table officer, and she was the waitress last night.” The officer glanced at the table before walking over to Mary.

“Good morning miss, I’m officer Mitchell and this is Peter Evermore. Unfortunately, last night there was an accident and his father passed away. Mr. Evermore here believes his father might have left something at this diner before they left yesterday.” Peter was frantically looking around the diner. Mary was shocked and trying to process what the officer just said. “Miss? Did he leave anything?”

Mary looked at the officer, her thoughts going a mile a minute. She didn’t want to lie, but she knew something strange was happening here. She opened her mouth to speak, but Peter interjected “It would have been a small book.”

She thought and chose her words carefully, “I did see him with that last night when he was eating. But he put it in his coat pocket when he stood up to leave.” Peter’s face flashed with a wave of excitement that was uncommon for a mourning son to have. “That was just before you came in and grabbed him. The conversation was really…tense.”

Peter’s face flushed, “That’s enough.” Quickly trying to change topic he continued, “Officer, where are my father’s belongings? Where would that coat be?”

Officer Mitchell was too sharp though, “Grabbed him you say? Mr. Evermore, I thought you told me you and your father were on good terms. What was it you two were discussing last night?” Peter paled as he realized any lie he said would be instantly brought to light by Mary’s witness.

Not to lose face he tried a tone of confidence, “We were on good terms. I had been looking for him in the storm to make sure he was okay. I wasn’t convinced he hadn’t gotten off drinking or gambling again. It was sheer luck that I found him here. Now, if we could get his coat, then there is no need for us to be here.”

Mary took a deep breath to steady her voice, “Pardon me Mr. Evermore, but was the black notebook the thing your father said he wouldn’t give you over his dead body last night?”

Peter’s temper boiled. “Why you!” He yelled at her. Officer Mitchell stepped between Peter and Mary.

“Mr. Evermore, I’m going to need to you to come down to the station for a few more questions.” He went to usher Peter out, but a wave of panic washed over Peter. Without another word he took off out the front door with Officer Mitchell hot on his heels. The whole diner was abuzz with the energy of the spectacle, but Mary’s head just spun. She wanted to look at the notebook she had in her bag, but after what happened, she couldn’t risk anyone in the diner seeing.

Mary struggled to remain focused for the rest of her shift. Her mind was elsewhere on Peter, the old man, and of course the small black notebook. After she got home that night, she moved Jaden to the bed, but didn’t climb in herself. She sat in the living room with the little notebook on her lap.

She opened it slowly and began looking through the pages. Many of the first pages were worn and had dates from decades ago. After every several pages, the handwriting would change and there was the occasional running balance at the top. As she got near to the end of the entries, something quite peculiar jumped out at her. There were entries with Peter Evermore next to the name Erwin Evermore. There were several transactions recorded over the years between the two.

She flipped to the last page with writing and at the bottom of the page was Erwin Evermore with “Mary - Waitress”, yesterday’s date, and the amount of money he had left on the table. Mary stared at the page puzzled, why would Peter go to such extreme lengths to kill his father over a book where he tracks his spending? She looked at the front of the book and nothing special was there, but in the back on the cover there was something inscribed:

Tis best to plan thy finances,

never leave the account up to fate.

Mary thought long on that riddle, but realized she needed sleep if she was ever going to function tomorrow. Closing the book, she placed it in her bag. She set her alarm for just a few hours later. Tomorrow would be a better day, after all it was Jaden’s birthday.

While she worked in the morning at the diner, she thought over the riddle in her mind. “Perhaps it had to do with the timing you record your finances”, she contemplated. She did recall seeing Erwin write before he paid rather than after he paid for the meal.

Mary took a half day and went down to the toy store to get Jaden’s gift. After selecting a Mr. Flippers to go with Mr. Floppy Ears, she went up to pay at the register. As she reached into her bag for the money, she saw the black book and had a curious thought. Pulling it out, she flipped to the last page, and looked at the cashier’s name tag. Then she wrote her name, “Tom - Toy Cashier”, today’s date, and the amount for the stuffed frog.

Feeling quite accomplished that she could carry on Erwin’s tradition she put the notebook away and went to get the money. But she was shocked to find there was twice the amount in her bag than she had for the toy. That was quite peculiar though maybe she had withdrawn more from the bank than she remembered. She also stopped by the grocery store to get the cake mix, but after recording it in the notebook, again there was more cash in her bag than there was at the toy store. Something very strange was happening and she was sure it was because of the small black notebook.

When she got home, Jaden leaped into her arms. They spent the afternoon baking his cake and Mr. Flippers helped as well. After dinner, she saw her bag with the notebook sticking out. She went to the last page. She then wrote her name and Jaden’s name with the date, and the amount of five hundred dollars. Not that she planned to give him that amount, but she was curious. When she looked in the bag there was more money there, but only about fifty dollars’ worth.

Just then the home phone rang, it was the bank calling to check if everything was alright because she had emptied all of her funds from her account today. Puzzled and panicked, she reassured, thanked, and hung up with the bank. It finally clicked, there was not five hundred dollars in her bank account for Jaden.

With a shaky hand, she picked up the pen and opened the book to the last page. Glancing at the running balance, she wrote Erwin Evermore, her name, the date, and twenty thousand dollars. With a thud her bag fell off the table and twenty thousand dollars slid out across the floor.