Sunday Afternoon

It had been a long winter. Cathy took the dog on a long walk for the first time in months. Short walks had been more common, but out of the routine they had previously established. Several long walks, ten miles a day had dropped significantly with the cold. A change in weather, the warmth that had sprung up meant a return to normal. With winter’s end in sight, warmer days, and clearing snow meant there were more people out and about along the path than they had seen in weeks, months. This fact would have been annoying at first, a distraction to her dog, Addie, or a constant stream of people bringing obstacles to maneuver around. But, with more people out, there had been an effect she had missed. Money.

It started in the fall, only small coins at first. Cathy picked them up and set them in a little dish on her dresser. Then, it became bills. She found several one dollar bills, some five dollar bills, a ten, then a twenty. At first it had seemed like a coincidence, small bits here and there to bring home, almost a running joke at the luck. It had never gotten too big, but enough in a matter of weeks that it had become a game. Spotting coins or dollars discarded and left behind. A matter of weeks of this had brought her a little over fifty-four dollars. It had been a few days of nothing, before one afternoon, Cathy saw a scratch-off lottery ticket amongst the leaves blowing in the wind. She walked past it, assuming it was a losing ticket that someone had discarded. As she continued on, she recalled all the cash she had found and decided if the ticket was still there on her way back, she would pick it up.

It was still there, so as promised, she picked it up. Half-expecting to find it scratched off, only furthering her assumption that it was a losing ticket, she was surprised to see it untouched. Simply lost or left behind just for her to find. She put it in her pocket, and went home, ready to see if her luck was back. Using one of the coins from her collection, she scratched off the ticket. With the gray coating scratched off and cleared, she’d added another hundred dollars to her collection.

That was the last of the cash for a while, as it was dark by the time she got home from work, and it was also getting too cold to be out for those long walks. Then, there was the snow, so much snow.

But, just as the fall had brought the random coins and money that had come her way, Cathy hoped that the same would be true now. She’d gone a few days with nothing. It had been disappointing to say the least. Still, something in her gut kept her from just giving it up. She kept her eyes out while on the walk with Addie all along the way. Walking along their old path, Cathy and Addie passed by the little black notebook partially peeking out of the dirty pile of snow that had built up from the plowed snow.

It could have been anything, a list of phone numbers, a list of addresses, something. But, she told herself that if it was there on her way back, she would grab it. Maybe it was nothing, if anything, she’d get a name, and know who to return it to. Or, maybe her luck was somehow back with this small black book.

At first, she didn’t see it. It hadn’t been so easy to miss on the way there, had it? There was a moment that she kicked herself for not picking it up when she first saw it. Maybe someone else had picked it up. Her luck passed her up. She was about to turn, to head home, accept the loss, and move on. As soon as she’d accepted it was gone, it was almost as if it had manifested in front of her again. Black and prominent against the white of the melting snow. With quick movements, Cathy pulled it out of the snow, and looked it over. It was in pretty good shape considering how it must have been under several feet of plowed snow for months.

Despite the initial appearance, the damp curled edges seemed to be the only damage. Nothing was torn, ink hadn’t washed away, and had hardly smeared from the dampness. There were no names to give a clue to the owner. Most pages were blank. Only four pages had anything written on them. Each of those four pages had four numbers written on them.

After considering options, what these numbers meant, Cathy decided to use the first page of four numbers and purchase a Pick 4 Lottery ticket. The next morning, she had an email stating that she had won. She stared at the website, at her winnings for too long, disbelief at the number evident on her face. Five thousand dollars. It had to be a coincidence. She tried the next page, the next set of numbers for the next drawing. And just as the first day had been a win, so was this. Four days of winning tickets. Twenty thousand dollars.

The money was not insignificant, and Cathy wasn’t sure what to do with this sudden windfall. She considered options, but finally settled on one. As a nurse at a nursing home, she knew the pressures that came with it. It seemed like an easy decision to share the money with the other nurses, a small bonus between them to keep their spirits up.

The warmer weather had brought luck, but the game she’d made of it seemed to be better shared. An ending winter, and long walks with the dog were good for so many things, fresh air, keeping in shape, and maybe some more exciting finds along the way.