The Little Town

Her eyes are closed.

She is dreaming.

She is dancing.

Her big goal: one day on stage next to Rihanna as a background dancer.

Sarah is in her own world as suddenly a hand touches her shoulder. She shocks and rips her earphones out. „Mom, you scared me!” she said with a heavy breathing. „I am sorry honey. But Dad and I need to go back to the hospital. Just letting you know. I love you. Stay safe. Dinner is in the oven.“ Her mother rushed out of her room, leaving Sarah behind. Her parents are doctors. She is used to emergency operations or meetings late at night. She is only 13, but the busy schedule of her parents forced her to raise herself most of the time. No grandparents around, no uncles or aunts left. Her big family turned into a one-person-household with two parents always on the run. She wished they never moved away from her friends, her family, her old house. Now everything that´s left is her dog Luna and a big mansion with no one to play in.

On the other side of the little town Jake is grabbing his jacket.

„Wallet. Phone. Key.“

Another look in his small apartment to make sure the lights are off. As he walks down the stairways his phone starts ringing. ´Mom´ appeared on his display but he will not pick up, instead he is muting his phone and puts it back in his pocket. He hasn’t talked to his family for a while now. To ashamed to show his parents what he had become. A disappointment. Jake is 25 and in comparison to his brother Brian the black sheep of the family. Brian went to law school and has now a successful career. Meanwhile Jake, who is only a year younger, is in his second attempt of community college not knowing what he wants to do later. Brian is a risktaker, well-traveled and just sent a postcard from the Fiji island while Jake never went out of his comfort zone and is still sleeping on a couch. How many times had he dreamed about a great travel story or an exciting day but with only 5$ in his wallet the only thing he is able to do is going to the bar his best friend Joe owns.

The streets are empty.

Not one person is walking on the street.

Not one car drives around.

Who should be out at 9.00pm on a Wednesday evening anyway? No one but Jake. While others are going to bed to be ready for their jobs in the morning all he can do is go to the bar, drink his few beers, head home and fall asleep half drunk on the couch before he wakes up at noon rushing to his class where he is asleep anyway. So, he is walking through the little town wasting his live and dreaming about things to remember and tell his kids later as he hears a dog barking. Annoyed by the high-pitched barks, that must come from a Chihuahua, he looks around to find the owner of the dog. He keeps on walking when he realizes that the barking comes out of the dark alley he just passed. He hates his curiosity and perfectionism because he now turns around to make sure the dog is really in that alley. He knows he wouldn’t stop thinking about it all night if he wouldn’t confirm that the dog is really there. As he walks through the dark alley the barking gets louder and louder and then suddenly stops. He finds himself next to a big trashcan and some old cardboard boxes. The barking as well as the dog just vanished. Jake looks around a few times to make sure he is gone as out of nowhere a light turns on at the end of the alley in front of a fence. Again, out of curiosity he had to check. Boxes, boxes and more boxes. That’s it. Nothing more to see. Except for that one black box that next to all the others is made out of wood. Whatever it is, Jake was meant to find it. The dog led him into the alley and the light pointed at the box. As he is leaning forwards the box, reaching for the handle to open it, his phone starts ringing. Its Joe. Jake picks up but he doesn’t say anything. “Hey, are you still coming or not? There are no customers on a Wednesday night so if you don’t show up, I am going to close.” Too focused on the box Jake only managed to give Joe a “Ima go home.” before he hung up and dropped the phone in his pocket. His body was shacking. His eyes couldn’t believe what they are capturing. His mouth is wide open. One minute later as he was still looking at the box, the Chihuahua started barking again. He shook and started focusing on what he just discovered. Hundreds, thousands, no ten-thousands of dollars. He kneels down noticing a little black notebook. Before he could even open it a little note fell out of the book: ´Congratulations, you found me. I am your lucky heaven or worst hell. You see that money over here? It is 20 grands and all yours if you can simply write down the answer. Many people found me already, now you have been chosen.´ Jake looked around him to check for hidden cameras, microphones or even people. But nothing. Not even a single movement was to hear. Jake opens the book and reads the task:

Look at you and what you found

20 thousand is a good amount.

To take it home and not leave it here

write down your name and biggest fear.

He found a black pen taped inside the lid of the box. He analyzes the book. Every page includes only two words. A name and the persons biggest fear. Silvia, spiders. Alex, snakes. Rose, planes. Chris, caves. A few pages later he got to the last one: Collin, falling. Jake found it interesting to know nothing about the person but their biggest fear. “Probably a good conversation starter on a first date” he thought “but what do I know about dates or women.” There were approximately 400 pages in the book and 28 of them were filled which made him the 29th lucky person to find this book. He wrote down his name and didn’t have to think long about his biggest fear: heights. It isn’t really his biggest fear, but he always used it as an excuse to explain why he is not so well-traveled like his brother. He didn’t have time to think about another fear since he is already thinking about ways to spend the money. “A car. No. A bed. No. A new computer. No.” hundreds of thoughts are rushing through his mind as he tries to think about the best way to spend the money and even though he had many good ideas he decided to go skydiving.

Fast forward, a week later, Jake is turning off the TV. It is an early evening, but he decided to go to bed since tomorrow is his big day. The first risk he has ever taken. The first thing he can actually tell his kids later. On his way to the couch he passes the black box with the money still in the same position as he found it and the little black notebook plus pen on top of it. As he lays down, he thinks about the people in the book and how they spent their money and slowly falls asleep.

Sarah woke up home alone.

Again.

Her parents left her overnight leaving only a note on the fridge: ´Sorry honey, we had to leave again. But Mom and I will be back in time to drive to the beach today. Don’t worry. We love you.´ She couldn’t do much about it, so she grabs Lunas leash and decides to go for a walk around the little town. She is excited to go to the beach. She loves the beach. Except for the big waves. Ever since she watched that one show she wasn’t supposed to watch, big waves became her biggest fear. But she loves the beach and those waves wouldn’t stop her from splashing in the water with her parents. It was the only time she felt like part of a family. The only time they were all together and united.

The big day -

and Jake is excited.

He grabbed three 100-dollar bills and the notebook and walks out of his apartment. As he walks up to the train station, he runs into a golden labradoodle who started attacking him. Out of reflex Jake dropped the little black notebook. The leash was on the ground and Jake started looking around to find the owner of the dog. A few seconds later a girl screaming ´Luna´ ran towards Jake. “I am so sorry. I don’t know why she started acting out.” the girl started apologizing. “It’s alright” Jake said noticing that the dog stopped barking and sniffed on the little black notebook instead “I think your pup is interested in my notebook.” Jake laughed. “I guess so” the girl agreed also laughing. “You can have it if it makes her happy! I don’t need it anymore, anyway.” Jake picked up the book handing it over to the girl. “She is a little weirdo sometimes, but I guess it would make her happy.” Sarah reached to the book and thanks him again before she turns around and continues her walk. As she is walking down the road she reads through the book. Confused by the information that each page gave her she finally found the note explaining her the purpose of the book. “20 grand, where?” she asked herself as she turns around the corner, into the driveway of her house, to the front door where a black box filled with approximately 20.000 dollars stands. “Omg!” she said to herself as she is counting the money. Smart as she is, she already solved the task and wrote down her name and her biggest fear. “That’s going to be an awesome story tonight after the beach at dinner” she thought as she is hiding the money in her closet.

Meanwhile Jake arrived at the skydiving place.

He got his harness on and is on his way into the plane.

His instructor is not so chatty as the others but that is alright. Jake is too excited to tell his parents about his jump when he gets home so he can’t think about small talk right now anyway. The flight took about 15 minutes until they reached the perfect height and location to jump. “You alright man?” the instructor puts his hand on Jakes shoulder. “I know it is scary the first time, but you’re going to love it. I always say: overcome your fears. My good friend Rose was jumping 2 weeks ago. She just got a big deposit of 20k just like me. Sadly, she passed in a plane crash on her way to Spain. My name is Collin by the way. Alright, it is our time to shine.” His instructor didn’t say a single word the past hours they spent together. From paying, to putting on the harness to going in the plane but in the last few seconds he said too much.

As Jake is sitting on the edge of the plane,

about to jump,

he realizes he is jumping into his death.

The book doesn’t want you to overcome your fears - it will kill you with those.

As Collin counts down from 3 to 1 all Jake can think about is the girl he handed the book. He wanted to stop it but it was too late. They already jumped. And Sarah is already at the beach, with her family, running into the ocean…