The Letter

Empty. I shut the mailbox and sighed in disappointment. I was supposed to get new papers today for the small black notebook my daddy gave me for my eighth birthday since I am running out of papers to write on. After seeing an empty black void in the mailbox, I moped back to my college dormitory.

Later that day, I decided to fly to my mother's house. As I glided with my wings to her front door, I saw a package labeled “Monica”, Why would Mom have mail for me? I thought.

I carried it inside; it weighed like a ton of bricks! I asked my mom about the package, but she said she didn't order one, so it must not have been mine. I sat down at the table and opened it. “Wait, what?" I said opening the package, then I recalled what was in the box, "Oh! I meant to send this to my dorm! How could I put the address in wrong?” I laughed. “Maybe you just miss home,” my mom joked.

Later that night, I sat in my dorm room in my fuzzy socks that my mom made for me as a going-away gift when I first left for college. I pulled out my small black notebook from my purse and started reminiscing over the pages I've written over the years. As I shuffled through the pages, a folded up soiled note fell out of the very back of the notebook. I was a little confused, considering I had been through this book at least 1,000 times and never found it. It read:

Dear Monica,

Happy 8th birthday! You are going to grow up to be an awesome, mature, and kind young lady. If you are reading this now, it is too late to visit me, but I have something for you. In the attic, there is a compartment behind my old teeth collection. To open it you will need the combination.

Love, Mom

What kind of note was that? I thought. Was I supposed to trust this note that I found it crumpled up in the back of my notebook? I mean how would you react if something like this happened to you?

I had new plans that night and nothing was going to stop me: go to my mom's house to search the compartment. I thought I would need sleep to sleep first; it was getting late. I blinked a few times and felt well rested, so I decided to go to my mom's house, anyway.

I arrived at my mom's house and saw her sitting on the porch. "Hey, mom," I said as I brushed past her to run up the attic ladder. I quickly looked around and I found the compartment. I was very small. How could I have missed this? I thought to myself. My heart beat faster the closer I got to the box. A thousand thoughts raced through my head: What is this thing? What if it kills me? What could it be?

Through the corner of my eye, I could see my mom stretch her neck from the bottom of the ladder all the way into the attic to see. She watched as I fiddled with a combination lock on the box. I figured that the combination might be my birthdate. I enetred the numbers and the lock melted into a puddle in my hand. I licked my hands as I opened the box. Suddenly, a spider jumped onto my face.

I felt groggy as I woke up from my dream. It was the strangest and scariest thing ever. I got out of bed and wrote it all down in my little black notebook.

I checked the back of my book to confirm that it was all a dream, but I saw something else instead. It was a number, a lottery number. So I got dressed and bought a lottery ticket. I played with the numbers in the back of my book. And soon found out that I had won the lottery! The grand prize was 20,000 dollars. That day I went home being the happiest woman alive. Later that night I erased the terrible dream I had out of my journal. Because, why hold on to the bad things in life when I could hold onto the good?