Rosie’s Little Black Notebook

It was a cold, dreary day. Grey clouds as far as the eye could see in every direction. Hundreds of umbrellas surrounded the casket. During the eulogy, Zoe became overwhelmed by sadness. Her heart ached for the loss of her grandmother, Rosie. Rosie was always there helping her grandchildren, as much as she possibly could.

Zoe ran away from the funeral processions. She found a giant oak tree and cried into it, as if it were a warm shoulder. As tears ran down her cheeks, she felt a hand gently rub her back. She didn’t look to see who it was. Her arm, covering her eyes up against the oak tree she bawled harder. The hand was still there, gently rubbing in little circles, up and down her spine. It felt familiar, so familiar it made Zoe spring to her feet and looked back to see who it was.

The only people that had ever rubbed her back in that manner were Rosie and her parents. Zoe’s parents had unfortunately died 5 years ago, so she knew it wasn’t them. Ever since she lost her parents, her grandmother took care of her. Rosie took Zoe to school, brushed her hair, helped with homework, cooked and gave her a place to call home.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, she didn’t see anyone. Nobody was even close to her.

“What was that?” Zoe said looking around.

She slowly gathered herself, using her sleeves to dry the tears and slobber from her face; she sat under that giant oak tree. Confused and lost, feeling hopeless she sat there.

Zoe, reeling from heartbreak, had to find somewhere to live. With graduation next week, she could at least release a sigh of relief that she didn’t have to actually go to school anymore.

“Is this life? Is this what life will always be like? Why should I even bother trying?” Zoe said. “What am I going to do? I cannot afford an apartment on a fast food workers wage. Should I just give up and save myself the misery?”

Zoe sat there, talking to herself. “I can probably get a second job to be able to afford a place but that will leave me no time to go to college.” This saddened Zoe again. It was her goal to be a nurse.

“I’m sorry mom, I’m sorry dad” She said, almost crying again. “I wanted to be like the nurses that tried to save both your lives.”

“I remember the car accident, I remember the haze of lights and sirens, I remember waking up in a white hospital room.” Zoe kept talking to herself. “I remember looking for you two. I remember not being able to find you near me.”

“Where are my parents?” Zoe asked.

A nurse replied. “They got really hurt in the accident and they are in the ICU, which stands for the intensive care unit. We are doing everything we can to help them.”

Zoe surprised, asked. “Will they be OK? Will I be able to hug them again?”

The nurse trying to reassure Zoe said. “We have the best Dr.’s and nurse’s h-”

The nurse was interrupted by a speaker. “Dr. Green and RN Gonzales Please report to the ICU stat!”

It was silent for a split second. RN Gonzales never broke eye contact. She gave Zoe a hug and ran.

Zoe could tell what was happening; she could see the dread in the nurse’s eyes. She knew she would never talk to her parents again.

After thinking about this Zoe stood up and gathered herself.

Zoe continued talking to herself under that big oak tree. “I want to be a strong nurse just like RN Gonzales. I want to help people when they need it most. I will help people.”

“It will just take longer than I thought!” Zoe said proudly and loudly. She was not one to give up easily.

“What will take longer?” asked Mr. Whitterhouse.

Mr. Whitterhouse is the lawyer that was in charge of Rosie’s estate. He would ensure Rosie’s wishes were fulfilled and all her belongings properly given to her grandchildren.

Zoe said slightly embarrassed. “Oh, just a dream I suppose.”

“Well,” Said Mr. Whitterhouse. “Hopefully this can help make that dream your reality.”

He handed Zoe a small black notebook. It was unlike any book or notebook she had ever seen. This notebook was extremely small, about the size of a stick of gum. The book, as she looked at it, wasn’t very thick and had maybe 50 pages. The quality was excellent, make out of leather and had the letters BTC embossed with gold lettering on the front. Each page had one word written on it, before each word was a number. The numbers started at one and went up to twelve. There were 3 sets of numbers all with different words.

Puzzled Zoe asked. “What is this tiny book and what did my grandmother write in it?”

To which Mr. Whitterhouse replied. “I am not entirely sure myself! I was hoping that you would know, perhaps something that you both made together?”

“All I know is that BTC could possibly stand for Bitcoin.” Mr. Whitterhouse said.

Zoey continued to look at the tiny black book.

It had just enough room for each letter and number. As she looked she noticed that on every number one page, had a tiny letter apart from the words that was written on it. The first number one page had a B, the second an X, and the third a G.

This confused Zoe even more. She decided it was time to go home. She was able to stay at her grandmother’s apartment one more week. Tucking the tiny black book into her pocket she rode her bike home.

After this day, Zoe was exhausted. Even if she cried more, no tears would come out. Her throat was so sore and she had a pounding headache. She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

The next morning, Zoe woke up to the sun beaming directly into her eyes. She pulled a pillow over her head, peaked out one eye and gazed at the clock. 1:09 the clock read.

Pulling the pillow back over her head, she thought. “It’s afternoon already? How long was I asleep for?”

Not getting out of bed stretching and yawning, Zoe slowly woke up. Not sure what to do, she feels a small item in her pocket. Zoe extremely distraught had fallen asleep in her clothes and had completely forgotten about the tiny book.

“What’s this? … Oh it’s that cute book grandma left me.” Zoe said. “I wonder what these words are for.”

Remembering what Mr. Whitterhouse said, Zoe rushed to her computer. She searched for Bitcoin.

The website had brought her to a page explaining all about Bitcoin, how it’s a crypto-currency, changing the way people pay for items and services; learning it is a digital currency instead of all these bills and coins. After hours of reading about Bitcoin, she was still wondering the meaning of the words.

As she researched, she remembered reading where the Bitcoin was stored. She remembered that a person’s bitcoin is saved in a BTC wallet.

Looking into the wallets that were available, Zoe noticed that one wallet was spelled BRD and another one Exodus. She thought maybe that is the meaning to the little letters on each of the number one pages. Remembering there was a set of numbered words that had the tiny B and X next to them.

She downloaded the BRD wallet to her phone. When the app loaded it asked ‘Is this is a new wallet or a previous wallet?’ She selected a previous wallet. The app then asked for the word that is number eight out of 12.

Slightly shocked she found the eighth word, food, and typed it into the app. It then asked for the second word so she looked and typed, velvet. The app then asked for the fifth word. Excitedly, Zoe typed in the word on the number 5 page, square. Once she did this the app said loading your wallet.

Zoe was in shock. “These words have meanings!?” She said excitedly.

Once the app loaded the wallet, it said that there was one BTC in the wallet.

Let down Zoe said “Awe man! ONE lousy coin what is that going to get me?”

Going back to the computer she typed in, ‘What is one BTC worth.’

The computer showed a graph, it was similar to a stock graph; Displaying the price change of BTC over the years. It also showed how much one BTC was worth. It said that one BTC could be exchanged for twenty thousand dollars.

Stunned, Zoe started to cry. She didn’t know how her grandmother could have something so valuable. She used to wear her shoes till the soles came off. She wasn’t rich and would always try to pinch a penny whenever possible. How did she do this?

Looking at the wallet Zoe noticed one deposit. It was for one BTC. The price was different, though. The ledger showed that she had bought one BTC for $100 dollars over 10 years ago.