444

“I allow the Universe to fill my life with prosperity, money money comes to me in

abundance and multiplied by three. may the moonlight amplify my desires and bring wealth to

me, so mote it be. Toni lit her incense as she repeated her incantation 3 more times.

Just as she finished her spell the phone rang. eager for good news

Toni answers Hello., “oh yea hey, is this Toni? Yesss, who is this? “This is

Sandy from the Sip N Phil; your background check came back. Would you like to

start work today?

“Well, it's already 2:30 the earliest I could get there would be about 3:45”

“Ok awesome see you then.” before Toni could reply Sandy hung up.

“Well, that was fast” Toni whines sarcastically as throws herself back onto the

bed “UGGGH I said 2020 was the last year I was working a 9-5. Well, it's better

than nothing.”

Toni sits up half

shrugging her shoulders. “it’s definitely better than nothing, Toni smiles

warmly, as she cheerfully bounces out of bed. “Ma- maa” Trey storms in

stuttering “ma-ma momma am I 3 or 4? “Trey stares blankly while holding up 5

fingers. Toni calmly answers you're 3 big boy, while blankly staring up at her

daughter.

Trey does a cartwheel boom “see told you La- La” trey sings

before running off and doing another cartwheel. La-la smiles trying to rush

past her mother and run into her room.

Toni quickly grabs La-la by her hood, she pauses and looks her up

and down. “Is this your brother's hoodie?” La-la smiles, girl if you don’t

leave your little brother alone.

“Okay” La- la giggles as she skips to her room, but he never

wears it. so imma steal it back again anyway.” La-la lets out a robust laugh as

she slams the door while looking at her mom.

“Whewww chile imma knock one of

these kids out.” Toni exhales as she does a light neck roll, before opening

La-la’s door “get upfront with your brother, and if you slam another door in

my face imma WWE you.” Toni turns and smiles as she walks into the kitchen.

“Turn that t.v down, and whose turn is it to do the dishes?”

“Eric’s!!” yells Trey as he jumps up and down on the sectional sofa.

“Mines'' whispers E.J, “Trey get off my couch.” Trey does a backflip off the

coach. “Ok guys, I’m going back to work tonight. And since I don’t have a car

anymore, I’ll have to walk which means I won’t be home till really late. So,

I’m gonna need you all to be responsible, make sure you eat dinner and everyone

in bed by 10 pm. If you have any problems go upstairs to Mrs. Cookie and ask her

for help, understand?” “Okay” everyone responds dryly.

“I am a money magnet”, “ money flows to me effortlessly.” Toni takes

a deep breath before removing her headphones. I can't believe it took me 45

minutes to walk a mile, sheesh I don’t want to do this. Toni smiles as

she passes through the automated doors leading into the Sip n Phil.

“Hey, I’m Toni. It's my first day is Sandy here?” “Uhhh no”, both

Toni and the petite cashier stare at each other blankly.

“You can go wait in the back; I'll call her for you.” “Okay

thanks” Toni limps off hot and exhausted after her 1-and-a-half-mile march to

her new place of employment. “Oh, thank God” exclaims Toni, excited to see a

chair her legs give away as she melts into the office chair.

after a few minutes Cindy the cute cashier comes in “hey sorry

about that, I'm Cindy.” Sandy wanted you to do your training modules. Unfortunately,

there was a typo and Sandy accidentally put your start date as 1/29 instead of

today's date. So, whenever Kim gets here, you're just going to shadow her

on the register.

“Hey Hun, sorry I’m late you know how traffic can get. “Hey Kim this

is Ceara, she’ll shadow you on the register and help you close up

tonight.”

“awesome, well hello Miss Toni let me sit my stuff down and I’ll meet you upfront.

“oh my gosh look that 1st hour flew look it’s 4:35 we’re

about to get hit with another rush. Mostly gas and lotto everyone will be

getting their Mega Million tickets for tomorrow’s drawing. So go ahead and take

a quick 5 min break, I’m gonna take a quick smoke break.”

Toni pulled out her phone and called Cookie “hey boo, are my kids up there?”

“yea girl they done ate and now they making s’mores. “oh, thank goodness, I’m so grateful for you girl.” No problem, it takes a village remember. Between your 3 and my 3, they outnumber us. Right, but they are the village, and Chile I’m tired.” Both Cookie and Toni let out a healthy laugh.

As Toni touched the bathroom door, she felt a small dull electric charge. “ouch!” Toni took a step back, feeling uneasy Toni felt numb and stopped dead in her tracks. The hairs on the back of her neck stood erect as a sudden cold came over her. Toni could hear cookie calling her name through her Bluetooth but she couldn’t speak. She could see her breath as she stood motionless in the sudden frigid cold. it felt as if she was in a bubble frozen in time like someone was watching her.

She felt them, it felt as if an invisible force was standing right next to her. Out of nowhere, Toni’s adrenaline started rushing it felt like danger was rushing right toward her but she still couldn’t move. Stuck frozen solid and heart racing, what the fu- BOOM!!

Toni flew back into the opposite wall as the bathroom door flew open and an oddly large man blew past her throwing her almost instantly. But he never touched her, almost like a force of some kind knocked her back. Toni slowly crept into the bathroom; out of the corner of her eye, she saw something shimmering. Almost calling to her Toni felt drawn to the gold glowing notebook. What is going on, “well it’s 4:37 what time you off?”

Toni looked down at her watch, which was cracked and apparently broken flashing 4:44. Toni looked at her phone as the clock switched to 4:38, What the!! That’s impossible heck I was frozen for at least 5 minutes Toni thought to herself. I gotta call you back Toni abruptly ended the call. Again, Toni immediately felt drawn to the notebook. The closer she moved toward the beautiful glowing object the more certain she felt she was meant to find and have the notebook. It was like she was possessed like the notebook belonged to her. Toni slowly picked up the notebook, once she touched it, it turned into a small black notebook. In her hands, it felt so light, almost as if was floating. Toni instantly felt lighter, she felt calm she felt as if she had clarity and certainty. Toni quickly put the notebook in her hoodie. She got herself together and walked out the bathroom feeling confident and assertive.

Toni saturated her voluptuous lips with her delicious red lip-gloss. She then sashayed back up front to the register, where a customer was picking through the candy bars. Toni walked past the customer “hmm I think the extra-large ones are on sale” the customer licked his lips and seductively smirked. “I also need 5 Powerball’s.”

“you need, or you want?” Toni seductively purred while tilting her head to the side. “oh, I’m sorry beautiful you’re right, can I please have 5 Powerball’s?”

“sure, can I see your license?” Toni flirtatiously bit her bottom lip and batted her beautiful almond-shaped eyes as she checked his license. “Would that be all Mr. Brown Toni smiled as she rang the customer up. “what’s your lucky number?” 4 “Ok let me get a scratch-off and get a pick four and you choose the numbers and you can have them both.” “aww thanks, that’s very thoughtful”

“if you win you have to buy me lunch, write your number down so I can call you.” Toni jotted her number down. Toni worked the next few hours effortlessly laughing, joking, and sassing all the customers as if she’d been employed there for years.

Okay, it's 9:30 so we'll

start to slow down. You did a great job today; we can go empty trash outside

now. “I’m gonna grab my coat and gloves.” Toni reached into her pocket for

her gloves and felt the magical notebook. Toni sat down and scratched off the

ticket “OH MY GOODNESS” Toni’s eyes got big I just won $4,444” Toni thought about

leaving. Kim reappeared, “you ready?” Toni stuffed the ticket in her pocket, “yea

I’m ready.”

“ok I’ll do this side and you can

do the three pumps on the other side of the building.” Toni rolled her eyes and

thought you mean the dark, creepy side with no cameras. Toni hurried to the

other side and quickly started changing the trash “Ewww it's wet and gross.” Annoyed

Toni called cookie back.

“Day 1 I’m at work changing disgusting gas station trash”

“Ewww sis that’s the worst” Cookie laughed.

“Why are you breathing so hard?”

“because someone triple tied this bag onto the can as if they were hiding blackboard’s treasure and I can’t get it out”

Toni hissed as she yanked at the bag. After one more healthy tug, the bag came loose. stumbling back Toni rushed forward in disbelief. “oh my gosh” looking around Toni hurried and picked the bag up and stuffed the contents back inside

“girl, what happened?”

“Come pick me up right now”

“Toni, are you ok? What’s going on?”

“nothing just come get me right now. Toni looked around before collecting the trash to put the garbage bag in the trash tote and wheeled it to the other side. as she rounded the corner, she saw Kim standing against the building smoking a cigarette.

“Hey, I’ve got an emergency my neighbor is on her way to get me. I’ll finish the trash up so you can enjoy your smoke break then I have to head home. “oh okay that’s fine, Ray will be here in 10 minutes go ahead handle your business and we’ll see you tomorrow. Kim walked back to the front of the store. “hey Toni you really kicked butt today hopefully everything is ok and we get to see you back soon.

“Thanks, yea I enjoyed the day. as Toni turned to walk towards the dumpsters, she saw Cookie zooming into the parking lot.

“dang, it took you what 2 minutes to get here” well hell you made it seems like you were being abducted I floored it here.”

“Okay help me with the trash then we can leave. cookie parked as Toni eagerly met her at the dump. “without hesitation cookie started grabbing the bags and throwing them in the dump. “well do you have your stuff or do you have to run in and get it “I have everything I need right here” Toni patted her pockets as she threw one small bag that was different from the rest into the backseat. They both hop into the car and cookie pulls off, what is that you threw in my back seat then?”

“pull off and I’ll show you at the next light. Cookie pulls off and whips the corner like a pro.

“ok girl, what's going on? What happened?”

Toni snatches up the bag and opens it while grinning like a Chester cat. Eyes big as the moon Cookie freezes. “is that”

“$20,000!!!” Toni screams pulling out the 10 stacks of the ’20s.