Fortune of Fate

Magic doesn't exist. There are no last minute miracles that save the day. The world, and more specifically your life, is what you make it. And yet. There are always snippets of time, small moments of what can't possibly be real. It's the coincidence of the day to day. The parts of our lives where we left the house a few minutes late, for any number of reasons, and just narrowly missed a tragedy. What about the more outrageous coincidences, those that happen too quickly, too perfectly to actually be explained? The word of coincidence and humanity's power of belief, either for or against the existence of something just a bit more, is something of a marvel. The mundane becomes magic and the common place becomes coincidence.

Every day had become a repetitive slog through life.Veronica hadn’t even tried to enroll for on campus tuition. Between not wanting to make the commute and not wanting to see people that will never be more than acquaintances, it just wasn't worth her effort. Her mom had gotten a promotion at work. This was definitely good for them and her mom specifically, but it still meant moving from house to house. The only silver lining so far is that they had yet to move out of state.

She had decided that it was time to head to the local library. Course books only go so far and one professor was a stickler for wanting more information than the book could give. The internet was a blessing but the work had to be cited. Putting google in the citation section was a good way to instantly fail.

All libraries have roughly the same layouts. The entrance, the check out desk and the rows and rows of books. It wasn’t hard to find what she was looking for and make the notations. She had just put her last book back when she heard a softened thud. She looked up to see a small black book on the carpet and a tall well-dressed person striding out of the double doors. The book was more or less pocket journal size and had no title. Scooping it up and taking off after the mystery book-dropper seemed a lost cause. They were already gone and nowhere in sight. After checking at the desk with the librarian on duty it seemed they, like her, were a new face. Flipping through the small journal revealed nothing but crisp blank pages. It seemed it was a journal without an owner and she really did need a new day-diary, her last one had been finished before her move.

Everyone has a way of chronicling their life in some big or small form. Veronica had a day-diary. It was truthfully less of a diary and more of a quick notes journal of what she noticed and things she needed to do. It helped keep her on task and helped with her directions. She would write down street names, directions, landmarks, and what was going on around her. And it seems she had just gotten a new journal, it must have been her lucky day.

She decided to write her name on the inside top left corner of the front cover and start writing as she walked. She had managed to get to the library with minimal wrong turns and somewhat trusty phone gps guidance. However, with the security of a new journal and all of her required work done she decided to explore her new town. In her research for the move, there was mention of a rather big park, her last town hadn’t had one at all, just shrubs on the sidewalk.

As she neared she was walking in front of a dimly lit alley. She heard a few faint noises that sounded like distress mewls of forgotten or abandoned kittens. She noted it down in her journal and had to harden her heart to keep walking. Her mother was sadly allergic to pets and it wouldn’t do to get attached to what she couldn’t have. She wrote about how she wished someone would come and save them where she couldn’t.

She hadn’t made it half a block past that sad alley when a car pulled up to the curb. Two women and a small child got out of the car and the child seemed to be dragging one of the women towards that very alley.

“Lorelei slow down. I promised you we would get the kittens. Even if we can’t keep all of them we can clean them and find them homes. Now please let go of my wrist, you’re going to make me trip.” The taller of the two women proclaimed. The little girl let out a shriek only the young can manage and rushed off with her renewed promise of kittens. Veronica just smiled and with a lighter heart wrote down the happy ending and continued on her way.

She had made it to the park with little difficulty, it seemed the library and park were considered to be in the center of town. The park itself took up a good two blocks. She made it to the center and sat in the pavilion and continued to capture her feelings about the latest move and her hope that this would be the last. She knew that life would be simpler if she could just get a part time job and get her own car. She could gain her independence and make a plea to get an apartment with her high school friends.

She was jerked out of her world by a cough not too far from the pavilion. She looked up and saw a man in rags leaning on a tree and catching his breath. It wasn’t the biggest leap in logic to assume the man was homeless. She quickly averted her eyes to hopefully not make eye contact. It felt wrong but there really wasn’t anything she could do. She jotted down her brief sight of him and her desire that hopefully anything would happen to help this man's situation. Sometimes even the briefest bit of kindness can be the turning point of someone else’s life. She calmly grabbed her items and exited the park, passing a couple that were decked out in what looked like camping gear, which did seem a bit odd. She slowed her pace to see where they were going.

The couple stopped and scanned the park and the smaller male grabbed the arm of his companion and pointed in the direction of the homeless man. This grabbed Veronicas interest and she moved just a bit closer to hear what was about to happen.

“Hi, My name is Eric and I know you won’t recognize me. Last month I had been mugged in an alley at the edge of town and you saved my life.” The smaller gentleman offered his hand and his partner’s eyes looked to be suspiciously damp. “I know it can be hard to accept handouts, Scot here grew up in the foster system and he’s explained as much as he can. So I wanted to find you and make you several offers. You can choose any or all of them.” He motioned to his partner who stepped forward to offer his hand and lay down the camping gear he had on his back.

“My first offer is that I give you $500, all of this camping gear and our phone number and you never have to see us again if you don't want to. My second offer is our guest bedroom while you get back on your feet.” He said as he gestured to the gear and then took a step back. The poor man could do nothing but burst into tears at the angels he saw in front of him.

Veronica had heard enough to know that those two men might just be saints. It warmed her heart and brought tears to her eyes as she walked home. The entire day being a restoration to her faith in the human race. She was looking forward to dinner where she recounted her day to her mother.

For the next month it seemed that Veronica was in the right place at the right time to witness these moments of fate. From a little girl being reunited with her military mother at a birthday party in the park to the shut in neighbor across the street having family from out of state visit with the new addition of twins. She managed to capture moments like these in her black book along with chronicling her college studies and the fact she only had two more months until she graduated and could look for a full time job.

Veronica was just closing the door after coming back from a library run when her mother called her into the dining room. She was instantly weary because the last time this happened all of her things wound up in boxes. Her mother was sitting at the table surrounded by papers with what could only be a dumbfounded expression. She looked up as Veronica entered the room and just silently handed her a letter.

Veronica was curious and worried at this point, but dutifully took the letter and began to read. It was a letter from the bank her father used to use for his stock market trading. It had her name as the recipient and it was informing her that her father had one last account open at that bank that was to be released to her upon graduating college. Apparently the account manager had records from her father of when she would be graduating. The account that was in her name only contained twenty thousand dollars and was hers to use as she saw fit. She looked to her mother with disbelief.

“We had discussed setting you up an account but I never knew he did it.” she replied to the unasked question. “I wouldn't open your mail but I saw the bank logo and didn’t even think to check who it was addressed to, I’m sorry for opening your mail.” she apologized. She then began to stand and gave her daughter something to think about. “With that I would be more willing to let you rent an apartment with your friends and find whatever job you felt comfortable at.”

Veronica was still stunned but needed to move to think. She left the house to go walking in the neighborhood. She made her way to a garage sale she had passed on her way home. As she had gotten to the driveway in front of the sale she went to make a quick note about what had happened and realized she had come to the end of the little black book and the entire last page had her name on it written in her hand, but she didn’t remember filling that page. Her neighbor called to her and she momentarily forgot about the odd occurrence.

She didn't seem to notice but it was as she was moving a box of assorted toys that the little black book fell out of her bag and into a box of comics.

Johnny loved going to garage sales with his grandmother and this was the first of the spring season. This one even had comics. Johnny was sitting in the grass to comb through the box when his grandmother surprised him by buying him the whole box. He was ecstatic and as he was pulling his hand out of the box his fingers brushed something of a different texture. It was a completely empty small journal like black book.