The Little Black Book

Theodore was walking thru the drizzling streets of London deep in thought . He was trying to navigate his way thru all the masses trying to get out of the rain himself as he thought about his night ahead . He shielded his eyes from the rain with his cap , and held onto it resolutely because the fierce wind and rain had taken hold of his umbrella and with a life of its own seemed to propel him forward .

The wind and rain got to be too much for him . So he took shelter in a alleyway , and suddenly he felt a small object fall onto his head from up above .He looked up above to the terrace to see who might have dropped it as his hands searched his cap and found no one there ;and when he looked down there was a water logged little black book .

He tucked it in his trench coat on a whim , and set out once more for home. Finally after what seemed like a eternity he slipped the key in the lock and slammed the wooden doors closed behind him . The warm fireplace beckoned him and made a nice contrast of the chill of the night .

He gingerly hung up his coat and hat and scarf on the coat hook , and fished out the black book eager to see the contents . He imagined maybe it was a fine young lady who had a list of lads a mile long with their phone numbers listed just waiting for her call . He smiled at the thought . Then frowned and shook his head no it was probrably a errand and grocery list book with his luck . Get your heads out of the clouds Theo he scolded himself .

His stomach growled and he realized with surprise he was uncharestically starving and more than a little parched so he sat the book down by the fireplace to dry out a bit and went to make himself a bit of supper . With the contents of his bachelor fridge looking more than a little sad he made a mental note upon surveying it to stop off at the grocery when it wasn't so depressing outside . He finally settled on a slab of sharp cheddar cheese and a couple slices of lunch meat and made himself a small platter with a deli pickle some chips he found in the back of the cabinet and a spot of tea to warm his insides.

With his bounty he went back to the living room to once more study the contents of the book . There seemed to be a list of names with numbers and dates hastily scribbled nearby . As he ate his sandwich he went down the list realizing quite a few of the names had been scratched out , and the numbers seemed to be dollars collected .

He sipped his tea and scratched his head maybe it's a bookie who had this book with debts owed to him and collected ? He started to get sleepy and his eye fell upon the daily newspaper he had smuggled back from the office . It was a bit soggy but it was his habit to pursue over it every day before bed . He settled himself into his favorite chair and put the book aside deciding to look for the owner in the morning after he found their name with some more investigating in the book .

He kicked off his shoes and slid his feet into his rather worn soft slippers by his chair and slid his comfy robe on . He set his supper dishes aside for the moment vowing to take them to the sink before bed and settled in with the paper . He read the daily happenings and the blotter thankful he lived in a nice neighborhood his modest salary could afford . He chuckled to himself at the funnies and the political cartoons made him shake his head , he softly nodded and agreed with the advice column .

Then his eye fell on the obituaries he was taken aback that he recognized a couple names in there among the pages ,but he couldn't think of for the life of him where he had ever came across them before . He looked at their pictures to no avail and read in detail the words wrote out by their loved ones but still couldn't figure out where he had know their names from . A little notion tickled the back of head , and he couldn't quite place it .

Then startled he had it . He swiftly picked up the little black book , and read thru the names again . There they were on almost the very last page scratched out with last weeks dates besides them , and the hefty dollar amount besides each one he realized with horror .

He double checked just to be sure . When he confirmed the unlikely duel placements of the dates of death and the dates in the book besides the identical names his mind started spinning . Should he call the authorities ? Would they think it was his book ? How could he confirm his story ?

Suddenly he had a idea maybe he their was more names in the book ? Maybe be could warn the next victim? He turned to the page behind the other names and let out a shout . Dropping the book it laid at his feet page opened as if mocking him .

It was no accident he had found the book. There on the last page it dark black ink with neat handwriting was scrawled today's date with his name beside it . Panicked he looked around , and then came a knock on the door .



The End