Dream in a Drawer

Opening his small mailbox Abbot found it stuffed with a bubble wrap lined brown envelope. The carrier had wedged it solidly in place with a fast food flyer, a car dealership postcard, and a bill. Abbot grumbled at the bill while walking to his apartment. Unlocking the door he read the sender's address on the brown envelope. Abbot told his phone to call ‘ Auntie Dearest’. The nickname was a bad joke picked up from a highschool literature assignment that examined ‘ The letter in the Victorian Novel.’ Holding the phone to his ear with his shoulder Abbot tried to tear open the package.

“Yes?” answered ‘Cord’ Alexander who had been waiting for this call since she had sent the envelope.

“You sent a package?” Abbot asked.

“Yes.”

“What is it?”

“You are supposed to open it and find that out.”

“Ok,” Abbot said as he struggled with the package. He walked to the knife block that held his miss matched collection of cutlery. Selecting a steak knife Abbot slashed a corner of the envelope. He ripped the envelope open. The bubble wrap insulation tore and popped. Inside was a small square object wrapped in brown paper tied up with postal string.

“It’s another package. “

“Open it.” She said through a delighted laugh. Aunt Cord had knotted the string with several bows. Taking out meat scissors from the knife block Abbot cut the strings holding the paper in place. This revealed that the crisp paper was also held in place by tape. Trading the scissors for a paring knife he slit the tape from the end and side seams of the paper. Nested in the middle of the brown paper was a little black book.

“It's a notebook.”

“Open it.”

Abbot slid the elastic strap that held the cover closed off. The pages were all blank. He noticed a slight lump in the back. Abbot leafed through to find a paper pocket on the inside of the back cover. Turning the notebook upside down Abbot shook out an old fashioned key.

“It’s a key.” He said puzzled.

“Do you remember Chris’s desk?”

“Oh, I couldn’t...”

“Yes, you can. When we sold his first advertising paper to a syndicate they didn’t want the old ‘Journal Press’ building it was in because they had their own print shop. So we kept the building and divided it up into rental properties. Chris kept a small broom closet of an office there for business papers and he always intended to write his novel there...Anyways, the rental agent has let the entire second floor to a college for the fall semester. I’ve boxed up all the papers and the only thing left is that desk and the journal Chris always had in his pocket so he could work on that novel.”

Abbot dropped the notebook. It had spent thirty or fourty years in the pocket of a dead man.

“ I ...” He stammered.

“Look, you are the only person I could think of who might want an old writing desk.”

“But...”

“No. I need that desk out of that room.” Aunt Cord said firmly.

Abbot picked up the little black book and placed it on the counter.

“Um, ok. I need an address.”

“ There we go.”

Abbot copied the address onto the first page of the notebook. It felt sacreligious to see the clean page soak up the ink of a half dry pen with a faded advertisement for a motel he’d never been to printed on its side.

“ All right, you need to be there this saturday to get that desk. Drive something with a large trunk or a truck.”

“Ok. “

“And one more thing.”

“Yes?”

“Write something in that damned notebook.”

Abbot frowned after he hung up. He didn’t drive. It was cheaper than paying for a parking space. Who did he know that drove a truck? He wrote down a list of names under the address. In the margin he drew a funny cartoon of a truck with a giant desk in the bed. Abbot’s phone buzzed on the counter with a text.

Can you help move a couch? read the text. Abbots replied Theoretically?. A moment later Right now,Jerk showed up in a chat bubble. Abbot replied Sure. Where? The reply was a sarcastic Mars. He laughed while replying I’ll be right over.

Abbot locked his door and walked through the passageway outside to the central plaza of the apartment complex. He cut diagonally over the courtyard to another corridor. Walking through it he saw a waiting minivan at the curb. Its rear door was up with a woman sitting smoking in the hatchway. Behind her was a couch wrapped in plastic.

“Were you going to try to get that all the way to the third floor yourself?” Abbot asked.

“I was.” Jael answered while grinding her cigarette into the pavement.

“Ok, well...uh, how do you want to do this?”

“ You get the one end and I’m gonna hitch the other end up the steps until we hit a landing. We’ll rotate it to face the steps and up we go”

The couch sat diagonally inside the van. Abbot picked up an end of the couch and slid it straight. Then they slid the couch back until the end was almost clear of the van. Jael picked up the end resting on the van. They moved carefully up over the curb to the stairs. Then they began the climb. Finally they reached Jael’s apartment door. The couch was too wide to go in flat.

“Maybe if we put it on its edge.”

“And hook it around, sorta.”

With some encouraging shoves they successfully jackknifed the couch into the apartment .

“Want to help put on the feet?’

“ Only if there is beer.”

There wasn’t but Abbot stayed anyway. When they finally managed to secure the deceptively simple looking legs they realized the protective plastic wrap was supposed to be removed before attaching the legs.

“ I want a friend divorce.” Abbot said. Jael snorted. The solution was to cut the wrap as close to the legs as possible. They walked the several wads of wrap down to the apartment dumpsters.

Abbot walked back to his apartment. Taking out a beer he began to reheat some leftovers. As the microwave chimed he pulled out his phone and texted Jael Want to move a desk? With your van? He was vague about the location of the desk. Abbot promised himself he’d make up for it by buying Jael lunch. Saturday morning they set off to retrieve the desk.

“Hey, I didn’t realise this was going to take all day.” Jael said as they turned off of the main road onto a state route with a sign that stated it as ‘ scenic’.

“I’ll buy lunch.” Abbot offered lamely. Jael kept driving. The small town with its single flashing yellow light was tucked safely away on two side roads to nowhere. They pulled up to the battered service door of the ‘Journal Press’ building. Someone had propped the door open to reveal a steep flight of stairs to the second floor.

“Oh hell no.” Jael said as they both climbed up the narrow stairs. They were met at the top of the stairs by a chipper bald man.

“Name’s Chuck. You must be here for that desk.” He said brightly.

“Abbot is,” Jael said, “I’ve just here to laugh when he breaks his neck on those stairs.”

“I brought a grand piano up those stairs once.” Chuck laughed while motioning for them to follow. He led them to a small room at the very back of the building. Opening the door revealed a small table like desk with a pad calendar on it, The desk was crammed next to an old radiator heater.

“There it is. Just don’t break anything getting it out.” Chuck said as he left.

“ Ok, This isn’t bad,” Jael said, “ I’ll take the callender and you’ll take that drawer. Then we’ll come back for the desk.”

Abbot opened up the little black book and shook out the key for the drawer. He fiddled the key gently into place and turned it. Then he pulled the drawer out and set the drawer on the table. Filling the drawer were rows of rubber banded one dollar bills. On top of the bills was a folded note. Abbot unfolded the note and read softly

“Dear Abbot,

Every time Chris started a commission or ad he put a dollar bill in front of him. He left it there until he’d got the first draft done. I always thought he just put the dollar back in his wallet. Imagine my surprise when I cleaned out his ‘office’ and there they all were. All twenty thousand of them. I honestly don’t know what Chris meant to do with them. I’m a little mad he never thought, “ Oh, hey. I’ve got a drawer full of cash I could...”. But then there are so many plans he must have shelved for a brighter someday that we will never get to. The deak and the money is yours. Make a bit of your own dreams come true,

Auntie ”

“ You, “ Jael said after a long moment, “ Should use some of that money to buy your own car.”

Abbot sat down on the floor. It was a lot of money. And he had to... to do something with it. Jael sat down besides him.

“Hey. You don’t have to do just the ONE thing. You can do... multiple things, “ Jael gestured at the desk, “ For instance, Lunch.”