The Little Black Book

“The Little Black Book” by Cheyenne Brown

“Kate, get up! You’re gonna be late for your first day of college!” Mom hollered from the kitchen. I looked at the clock. It was only 7:30 a.m. I didn’t have to be there until 8, and I only live 5 minutes from the college. You know how moms are, though. I rolled my way out of bed and drug my feet to the closet. What should I wear today? Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact that mom wouldn’t approve, I’d just wear pjs.

After trying on several outfits, I finally went with sweats and an old Backstreet Boys t-shirt. As I was running down the stairs, I got the sweet aroma of pancakes. Man was I starving. It felt like I hadn’t eaten since last week.

“Nervous about your classes?” Mom asked, trying to make conversation.

“Honestly, I’ve been in school for 13 years now. What’s another first day of school.” Mom shook her head as I rolled my eyes.

On my walk to school, I ran into my best friend Alyssa. She was always wearing the nicest of clothes. I don’t think I’d ever seen her in sweats in my life! We had our first two hours together so we walked around campus until the warning bell rang. In our first hour, biology, our teacher introduced himself.

“Hello class, welcome to Biology 216. This semester, we will be learning about the different aspects of life on Earth. I know it’s only the first day, but we’re going to take a little field trip. Back behind the college, there is a little patch of woods. I want you all to grab a pen and a piece of paper, and note your surroundings. What kind of trees do you see? Can you point out the type of plants there are? We will meet back here in 30 minutes to discuss what we found. Good luck, students!”

At this point, all of us were confused. How is he going to just tell us to go into the woods and write about what we see? I can barely tell what kind of juice we have in the fridge. Alyssa and I decided to work together. He didn’t say we couldn’t have partners.

“Can you believe that guy? Just telling us to go into the woods on our first day of school?! Man I’m already hating college!” Alyssa stood with her arms crossed as little toddlers do when they don’t get their way. I mean, for the most part I understand why she is acting that way. She’s wearing heels, that look way too small might I add.

As we got into the woods, I started getting these weird chills. As if someone was watching us from a distance. You could see pretty far back, though, and there was no one in sight besides the other classmates. I had a really weird feeling about this.

As we walked through the woods, every other word out of Alyssa’s mouth was stupid. I couldn’t even get a thought in edgewise. Like normal, though, I was the one doing all of the work. I found various plants. I didn’t know what their names were, so I just wrote descriptions of them. Weird grass with different leaves from top to bottom. Baby strawberries. This was so boring.

I had just got done writing down another description when I realized that it was finally quiet. Normally, I would be happy because it was peaceful. But it worried me. I looked up, and Alyssa was nowhere in sight. Stranded, I started to panic. I ran towards the school to try to get the teacher after asking various people if they heard a girl complaining about everything. I was about three feet from the school, when I started hearing a voice.

“Kate. Oh Katie.” The melodic sound just mesmerized me. I had all of the sudden forgotten what I was doing. The angelic song just kept on.

“Katie, come find me. I have a great prize waiting for you.” I instinctively followed the voice, ignoring every red flag that stood in my way.

As I got closer to the woods, I started to get a whiff of something familiar. Mom’s pancakes. Yummy. The beckoning of my voice kept luring me in. After what seemed like forever, I finally got to where the voice seemed to stop. I looked around, panicked because I had finally come out of the trance. Why was that voice calling me? Do they know where Alyssa is? I slowed my pace back to a walk. As I stepped again, I heard a loud crunchhh! I had to muffle my own mouth to keep from screaming. Underneath me was a skeleton. It was dusty and covered with cobwebs. Man, whoever this is, they must not have had anyone looking for them. Poor thing. Despite feeling vomit crawl up my throat, I bent down to take a closer look. The skeleton had something in his hands. It was a little book, made out of what looked like leather. Out of curiosity, I took the book out, still feeling disgusted. I open it up, and on the first page, it reads,

Congratulations! You have just become 20,000 dollars richer! How might you ask? Only one person in the world can hear the voice of my ghost. And if you’re in possession of this book, well you’re pretty lucky. You see, I was an only child growing up, and it made life hard on me. I would always come to this spot right here and read my book or write in my journals. As I got older, I started to come here less and less. My mother and father had died when I was 22, leaving a legacy and a lot of wealth behind. Though I wasn’t close to them, my name was still on the will. I honestly had no need or want for the money. I was basically set, because I had a house, 3 cars, and a really good paying job. The family business. Well anyways, enough about my sad story. I vowed that one day, in hopes of helping someone better their life, I set aside 20 grand, and started writing my death book, or as I call it, “The Little Black Book.” Anyways, if you’re reading this, I’m already long dead by now. If you go to 545 W Mabel St, and go to the 24th locked mailbox, enter in the code 334345. That is where you will find your money. But you must tell no one. There are some cruel people in this world. Anyways, congratulations and good luck with your future endeavors. -Faye, 1922.

As I’m walking back to the school, unsure of the time, I’m still astonished. 20 grand. 20 GRAND. I get back to the classroom, and I find Alyssa, my mom, the three teachers just standing around. Mom and Alyssa were crying.

Mom runs up to me and asks, “Where have you been?” And I answered with the only way I knew how.

“I was looking at nature.”