The End Code

It was all a blur at this point, her grandmother’s death, the funeral, the mourners going in and out of her childhood home and now the lawyer sitting across from her on the sofa, his words rambling together. “Your grandmother left everything to you.” He said his voice reassuring her that this is a good thing. Still in her heart she just wanted her grandmother back, everything else was just stuff. He continued: “The home, cars, savings and all of the belongings are yours, you will not have to worry about money for the rest of your life, that’s what your grandmother wanted.” His tone changed to a slight annoyance at her blank stare when he added… “I know it won’t bring her back but at least she made sure your days on earth would be spent in comfort.” It was obvious he was just doing his job and her mental breakdown would have to wait until the papers were signed. With that she snapped out of her grief trance and put her name on all the papers with the highlighted yellow marks. And thus, she was now the proud owner of her grandmother's hopes and dreams, her hard work, her earthly toil, her future interests, and her past investments. It was all signed over in an instant. Taking on a seeming life of it as its previous caretakers’ candle had been blown out by the winds of change.

“It’s been a pleasure working for you and your family, your grandmother was a special person, and she will be missed.” The rote, perfunctory speech of a politely disinterested party seeking a quick exit from an uncomfortable conversation. Audra finally spoke, rising to her feet in the same motion “Thank you for your assistance Mr. Lawson, I will be in touch should I need anything more from you.” Shaking herself free of these necessary evils the way a dog shakes water free from its coat, vigorously and with great speed. Now that the paperwork had been signed and the pleasantries exchanged, Mr. Lawson made his departure.

Such is life that when one story ends another begins, and as Mr. Lawson went to lunch, tuna on rye with light mustard at a bistro near the office, Audra was busy unwrapping the buried trove of her grandmother's memories. She started her day in the home she knew so well, feeling like a diver surveying the wreck, looking for hidden treasure. Carefully crying so as not to mar the delicate sheaves of her grandmother's letters or the fragile surfaces of family photographs. A sudden and shocking thought washed over her like a cold wave, she cannot share her discoveries with the one person she loved so much because that person is unreachable now, severed and sent off to some strange and distant shore. The dress she wore at her wedding, her brothers folded up the flag from his flight home from war where only his lifeless body returned where the young man had gone. The various cards, the vacation souvenirs, the home videos, the jewelry neatly placed in jewelry boxes waiting for its beautiful owner to wear them out on the town but they day would not come because she was gone, and only material items remained where a human being had once lived. It was too much to bear. Audra, overcome with grief, started repacking the boxes to put them back on the closet shelves until she felt ready to explore them again.

As she went to place the last box back something caught her eye, a small black book was hanging slightly over the corner. Audra had a vague thought that it must have moved towards the front when she was moving the boxes. Audra grabbed the book and, wiping tears from her eyes, she slowly opened it to see what was inside. The book was old and tattered, the pages worn and there were no markings on the cover just a plain black binding. Opening it she thought she may have found her grandmother's diary and paused for a second to ponder if she should look inside or leave the secrets where they rest. Her lawyer’s words played in her ears that everything was hers now and she decided to see what was inside the book.

The worn black leather cover and binding offered no clue as to what lay inside so as Audra slowly opened the pages, she was more puzzled. Each page was filled with her grandmother's writing starting with the first entry in Dec. dated when her grandmother was just a child. It was written mostly in numbers and dates, but no all-out sentences were found in the mysterious books weathered pages. Turning back to page one there was only a single curious entry, two seemingly random dates: one from a summer that baked the Earth about seventy years prior, and the other for a day that wouldn’t come to pass for forty-eight more hours. Beside these dates were two sets of what appeared to be lottery numbers. Audra was familiar with this pattern as her grandmother had often sent her to get tickets in the past. Audra snapped a picture of this entry and posted it to her social media account. Stating to everyone in her list that her grandmother had left her a cryptic black book filled with numbers and she was determined to follow the clues. “I think my grandmother is telling me to play these lottery numbers for this Friday, we’ll see.”

This book grabbed Audra’s attention. It gave her a feeling of peering behind the curtain, like it was more than a fluke that she found it now. A book of dates from over seventy years ago, and dates that would occur after her grandmother’s death. Intrigued, Audra continued pouring over her grandmothers’ black book, embarking on a treasure hunt her grandmother manipulated from beyond the grave. looking through the book her grandmother had tucked away for the future. Ultimately, she decided to take her chances on the lottery.

The day of the lottery draw was surreal. It began with a bowl of cinnamon Life paired with a tenuous hope, and it ended with Audra three million dollars richer. Audra had won over 3 million dollars with the numbers she discovered. It was her first win, but it was hardly her last. Over the next few years Audra would claim many hefty lottery winnings, the curious nature of which would toss her headfirst into a sort of limelight, though she eschewed much of her fame and demurred against any attempts to suss out her secret. If only they knew, it was all thanks to her grandmother’s little black book.

Hardly any time passed before Audra had everything she needed in life, and so she began donating her winnings to carefully researched charitable organizations. She invested in sustainable businesses, in green energy, and in many other forward-thinking projects. At the same time, she began researching the mysteries that remained in her grandmothers writing. There were many cryptic passages, and she felt that the lottery numbers barely scratched the surface of the knowledge contained in the book.

The black book had numbers to the exact digit of how many would pass in the plague that had emerged about a year after the book came into her possession neatly penned beside the date when the first case would be discovered. A few months later Audra and her book were taken in for questioning when, yet another good count of the world’s population died suddenly on the same day. The date was written in the book along with another exact count of the dead. She was eventually released as she had no knowledge of how the book works and her lawyer was not going to let them hold her for a prophecy coming to pass that was written before she was born.

The following investigations into the deaths opened a lot of secrets into each person who had died, and many things came to light leading many to speculate this was beyond rational explanation. Some of the indiscretions were known but many were hidden however after the mass deaths no one remained silent in their crimes, even in death. Even odder was every autopsy performed showed they all died at the same time from drowning. Sea water was found in the lungs of all the deceased whether they passed away in a cell, in a desert, in a home office or public office, in their car or walking on the street, at the same moment they all drowned from sea water.

Once Audra was released, she spent the next month randomly telling people numbers to play from the book so that everyone could share in the wealth. There was a big push to help the children of the world as “The Millstone Redemption” which it had come to be called took many adults from existence. With only the best-intentioned people remaining this was not as big a task as it would have been in the past and the world was heading towards a time of peace and prosperity for those who inherited its bounty. While humankind was dropping like flies, human kindness was on the rise. And Audra had reached a sort of cult status among those who believed she was part of the great awakening. “Do you know what your name means, Audra?” she heard her grandmother ask while coming out of her dream state… It means storm” “Yes, I know, you told me when I was little” Audra replied half sleeping, until she was jolted awake by a voice she did not recognize, deep and foreboding it shouted. “The Tempest is coming! Wake up!” There was no time to acclimate to her waking environment for as soon as she opened her eyes a bag was placed over her head and she was rushed to a waiting vehicle by a group of armed individuals.

There has always been a race for power and now with everything spiraling out of control for the powerful Audra was seen a threat. They could not accept the extermination had been self-inflicted and fought in vain to slow the countdown that was coming for the world. Though anxious, Audra soothed herself humming a song she had not heard in years, it was her grandmother's favorite and it offered comfort to her as she was driven for what felt like hours to an unknown location. Once there she was rushed to group leaders who had planned on interrogating her and changing the fate that lay ahead. This would also prove fruitless for her captors as the first business at hand was the black book. The story had finally reached the last page, an entry that included coordinates and the current date. Audra had been brought to that exact location to explain how she had this information. What was a barren piece of land when that was written was now a top-secret military installation known to very few and was not yet established when her grandmother had penned the illustrious entry. There was no time for questioning as Audra arrived. The skies opened with ships and beams of light took Audra and a few others in that location right from where they stood. Around the world similar incidence happened which all of the chosen exited the planet at once. The exact number written in the book with the date and coordinates of where Audra would find her next path. For the remaining world, a huge storm overtook the earth and when the dust settled around 500,000,000 remained. Left to reinvent and reimagine a new world, without poverty, without war, without fear a new day had dawned and the survivors had inherited the earth. Along with it, her future interest and her past investments all signed over in an instant, taking on a seeming life of it as its previous caretakers’ candle had been blown out by the winds of change.