Lost and Found

It was a good day. The sun was occasionally peeking out from behind the low clouds, it was about 45 degrees, there was a steady breeze and the brisk October air smelled of salt and drying leaves, as it always did in the city that time of year. Ethan had lived in Portland, Maine for just over a year and had found the city quite to his liking. He was in his mid 20’s, with ginger hair, that was almost blonde, and a short, well groomed beard to match. He was a bartender and the money from tips was good there, he had met a girl that he had fallen in love with and made a good many friends. Ethan was ambitious, and he knew that he could really make something of himself in that town; he had a plan. He just needed to save up some money, buy one of the duplexes north of downtown, and slowly start building a secondary income, that in combination with his modest stock investments would quickly turn into enough money to acquire another property, and then another. In the meantime, he would work diligently behind the bar, and make the right connections to eventually be running a bar of his own, ideally with a few partners. It would take some time to save up for the initial lump of cash, but he was a patient man; working hard and waiting was no problem for Ethan Palmer.

However, his mind was not on the future just then. He was sitting at one of his favorite pubs, right on one of the wharfs, The King’s Head. He was one of the only people in the place, he had a pint of beer in his hand and he was examining a peculiar little item on the bar in front of him. It was a small, black notebook. He had found it half buried in the leaves next to the sidewalk, if he had not stopped to tie his boot at that exact spot, he would have missed it entirely. He did not open it until he reached the King’s Head and when he did read it, the contents perplexed him. None of the entries were signed, and the handwriting seemed to change every few pages. The entries were odd, each one was an individual narrative, and they made next to no sense to him. The front page had a puzzling inscription that read:

“The goose that lays the golden egg is best let free to roam.”

“Strange.” he thought to himself, and flipped to the most recent page and read the entry.

“He gained the strength of will to do what he knew needed to be done, for the power of the book was too great to be held for very long. At noon, he would toss the book out the window of his truck, and it would not again be found until by chance and only by one who was worthy.”

Ethan felt suddenly excited. It had been quite uncanny that his boots came untied when they did. His boots never came untied, yet, if he had not stooped to re-tie them, he would not have seen the book. He looked back through some of the other entries and noticed that many of them ended in similar ways.

“He would place the book in the crate, never to be seen by him again.”

Another read:

“An airport was the perfect place to lose something, for it could be found again at any moment by the right person.”

Most of the entries almost read like prophecies of success, outlining how the next album would be a great success, or the business would get acquired, or the new novel would be noticed by the right critics. Some were less savory, outlining tragedies on people, and Ethan quickly moved past those, for they made him feel strangely unsettled.

He finished his beer and then a suspicion dawned on him. Mike, the bartender came around

“Want another one, Ethan?”

“Yeah, that would be great. Could I borrow a pen too?”

“Sure thing.”

Mike set another pint down in front of him and handed him a pen. Ethan thanked him and flipped the mysterious, little book to the first blank page and began.

“The wind picked up and began to blow the clouds from the sky, making way for the sun to bathe the city in it’s light.”

He took a sip and continued.

“Just then, one of the guests walked to the door, and bumped into the corner of the bar on their way, not painfully, but noticeably.”

Ethan waited, but nothing happened, even so, he was amused with his fantastical thoughts and kept writing.

“The next day, I woke up and found two anonymous money orders in my mailbox, each for 25,000 dollars. It was enough to launch my dreams of owning properties and soon thereafter, I was approached by a new regular at the bar, who proposed that we start a small, basement, speakeasy style bar, which he would fund and take 45 percent of the ownership, leaving me to manage all operations.”

He leaned back and smiled. Mike came back around leaned against the bar near Ethan, they had been friends ever since Ethan had discovered the King’s Head a year earlier.

“I gotta say, Ethan. I like slow days like this every now and then. It’s a bummer to not make bank on tips, but there’s something therapeutic about maintaining a slow steady pace of work all shift.”

“I know what you mean, gives a fella time to think, and you never know, sometimes on days like these you get some big tippers that make up for how slow it is.”

“One can dream.” Said Mike cheerfully before walking away to seat the couple that had just walked in.

A little while later Ethan picked up the pen again.

“The couple that walked in left Mike a 200 dollar tip as they left, and Mike, feeling so lucky from it, decided to dump it all into a small crypto currency just before it spiked astronomically in price.”

Smiling to himself, Ethan took another sip and looked around the room, there were a few regulars that he recognized sitting separately at the bar, one of which he had chatted with on occasion, he remembered that the regulars name was Adam, he was in his mid to late 30’s and had gone through a rough breakup about 6 months before. He had always enjoyed chatting with Adam, he was a kindhearted, well spoken man and always struck Ethan as a good person. Turning his attention back to the page he continued his mussing.

“A beautiful woman walked into the bar and sat down near Adam, they struck up a conversation and found they had a lot in common. Exchanging numbers, they decided to meet later that week for drinks, which confirmed both of their hopes that there was something worth exploring in the other person. After 5 months of dating, they decided that they wanted to take a reckless leap of love into engagement, a decision they never regretted.”

He finished his beer and ordered another, it was still early, probably only 2 in the afternoon, and he had the next day off. Ethan felt the beer relax his mind, and he was quite satisfied with how the afternoon was going. He decided that he would meet up with his best friend later for drinks and a few games of cribbage at one of their favorite spots, Bar of Chocolate, a moody, relaxed little establishment a few blocks over. He texted his friend, who responded immediately saying that he would meet him there in 15 minutes. Ethan smiled at this and waved Mike over to close out his tab. He stood feeling buzzed, happy, and hopeful, and then remembered the little book. It sat so unsuspectingly on the bartop, and Ethan decided to make one last entry.

“And the book vanished after I had gone, to reappear somewhere else, some other time to another worthy writer. It remained to me nothing more than an amusing and mysterious memory of which I never spoke.”

Then he closed the book a walked to the door, saying hello to Adam as he passed. He bumped into the bar as he left and held the door open for an uncommonly good looking lady as she entered. It was bright and sunny out, with clouds only far off on the horizon. Ethan felt invigorated by the breeze and deeply happy and grateful that it was so beautiful out on his day off.