Little Black Book

As if the divorce and moving hadn’t been enough, Cecelia was now tasked with cleaning out the eerie attic of her new home. She hadn’t known about the attic when she purchased the home. It wasn’t until she was bringing boxes in and accidently touched a trigger that opened a door to a hidden staircase. It struck her as strange that the realtor hadn’t mentioned it but maybe he didn’t know about it. Either way it was a large extra space she could clean up and turn into a storage room and maybe her new writing space. Something maybe a little less creepy.

Cecelia started by using her empty moving boxes to toss trash, old newspapers, and magazines in. While she went through box after dusty box she reflected on the finality of her divorce from Sean. After putting a small down payment on her new home, she was left with little money since he got everything in the divorce. She was brought back to reality when she opened a box and found old photo books. As she browsed through the pages, she recognized some of the people from the old newspaper clippings. Wondering who they were, she pulled out a couple newspapers from the boxes she had for trash. The articles were on old mob trials and mob hits.

Shocked and appalled she dropped the newspaper back into the box. Did she somehow stumble onto a house that’s previous tenants were insane mobsters? Crazy she thought and began to open more boxes to see what other surprises she would find. In the next box she found books with names and numbers that made no sense to her. In another she found old clothes and hats. Then she found more photo albums, and some had articles next to pictures. Maybe this stuff was worth something or maybe I should give it to the authorities, she thought to herself. After going through a few more she moved some to the side to get rid of.

While moving the last box over to the corner she felt the floorboard move and heard a creak. Looking down she realized there was a loose board. Slowly she attempted to lift the board and it easily came up. Hidden in the floor was a little black book with the name Moleskine on it. She stood looking at it for a moment before bending down and picking it up. It didn’t feel as heavy as she thought it would be for a slightly larger book. Cecelia opened it and to her surprise there was a cut out portion of the book with a stack of money inside. She sat the book on top of a box, took the money out and began to count it. In total there was twenty thousand dollars! Cecelia couldn’t believe this money had been just sitting in her attic.

She wasn’t sure what to do about the money she found. Should she go to the police and report it? Should she keep it and consider it a blessing? What if someone came looking for the money? Would someone still come looking for the money after all these years? From the dates on the newspaper articles the money must have been there for over forty years. Until she could decide what to do with it, she put it all in a large zip lock bag and hid it in the back of her pantry. Since it was just her in the house the money would be safe there. Plus, if someone knew where it had been, they would go look in the attic for it.

Cecelia contemplated what she was going to do with the money for over three weeks. She thought it best not to discuss it with anyone so no one would try to take it while she decided. In the end she decided to keep it. It was after all her house the money was in which made it hers. As her momma used to say, “thank God for the surprise blessings”. And so, she did.