THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK

THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK by Laura Kelly

It was an ordinary day. The sky was bright yet cloudy. All the rooftops in the area were covered in a beautifully white and fluffy looking snow. Light snow still fell; but, the worst of the storm had ended.

“There hasn’t been snow like this since 1971”, said Suzie. “You remember? You must!”, she continued. “How could you remember that?” asked Jo. “You may have been 2 years old at the time; but, certainly no older than that.” “I know”, Suzie responded; “but, I have looked through mom’s photo albums a kazillion times! Just wait, I’ll go look for that year in pictures!”

Suzie went up into the attic of her beloved old century home. The stairs creaked as she carefully walked up to the top of the home. The stairs had not been used in years. No one had been in the attic for a very long time. Suzie ran her hand along the walls, touching the fading yellow paint on one side and the 1970s vintage yellow velour, velvet flocked, damask paisley wallpaper on the other. She recalled how much she loved the colours and velvet touch as a young child. “I really should put some effort into this part of the house,” she thought aloud. “It’s all going to rot if I don’t take care of it.”

At the top of the stairs, Suzie cautiously opened the door to the attic. She wasn’t sure why she was being so careful, so quiet. It’s not like anyone was behind the door waiting to attack her. But, it did feel somewhat spooky.

The door creaked open as Suzie peered into the attic space. “Wow! There is so much in here”, she thought. “And the dust! All the dust! Now, how am I going to find….”. Suzie didn’t finish her thought. Peering out from behind an old, banged up wooden bookcase, two eyes were focused on her. Suzie was startled; but stayed quiet so as not to scare her soon-to-be friend.

“It’s okay”, she said while squatting and holding out her hands with her palms facing up, so she could be seen as friendly and not a threat. She had a little pack of raisins in her pocket so she decided to take them out and put a few into her hands. Slowly and carefully the creature moved, she could see more than just two eyes. It turns out, she found herself the most adorable black squirrel. It had the most bushy tail she had ever seen on a squirrel. Thinking of the tail she immediately named her new friend, Fluffy.

Fluffy crept over to Suzie and smelled her hands. He used his paw to reach out and bring one of the raisins closer to him. He then picked it up, rolled it around and popped it into his mouth. Within a second, the raisin popped right out of his mouth. Fluffy looked up at Suzie again. Then, looked down at the raising and picked it up once more. He rolled it around for a bit and popped it back into his mouth. He actually seemed to enjoy it even though it appeared to be a ‘new’ food for him.

After eating a few raisins, Fluffy went back behind the bookcase and made some scratching type noise. Suzie asked, “what are you up to Fluffy? It sounds like you are moving furniture back there!” She walked over towards the bookcase trying not to make any sudden sounds or movements. Then, she saw Fluffy’s tail. She wondered, “what is going on with this squirrel?” Then as Fluffy backed up and into full view, Suzie noticed he was indeed dragging something. “Hmm, I wonder what Fluffy wants to show me?”, Suzie thought to herself. It looked like a book - obviously a small one since Fluffy was able to drag it. Suzie moved closer and Fluffy let go of the book, sat down, and stared at her. He looked at Suzie and then at the book and again back to Suzie. Seeing that as an invitation, Suzie picked it up. It was a small black journal of some kind.

It seemed pretty old - yellowed like the wallpaper on the way up to the attic. Suzie looked around for a place to sit. She found an old wooden rocker, covered in a thick layer of dust, in the corner. Luckily for her, there was a blanket on it so all she had to do was remove it carefully so as not to raise the dust too much. She placed the blanket on top of a crate and sat down in the wooden rocker. At first, Suzie did a quick flip through the book. Nothing fell out. None of the pages seemed to be ‘used’ more than the others. So, she went to look at the front inside cover of the old, leather-bound book. She quietly read aloud, “For my dearest Elizabeth on this 24th day of July, 1915. Please don’t ever forget me. I long for the day we can be reunited. This war has been so hard on everyone; but, not being with you is the most difficult thing I’ve had to endure. I long for sleep to come each night. It is then, when I close my eyes, that I get the chance to see you again. To see your radiant smile. To touch your soft hands. And, to just hold you. All this, in my dreams. The day will come though, when we will be together for real. In the meantime, read a page of this little black book each day. I have written a page each day I’ve been away so you have a year’s worth to read. Writing helped me stay close to you and I hope reading it will help you remain close to me. From your loving husband, William.”

Suzie began sniffling as she read the lovely inscription and held the book close to her bosom. She looked at Fluffy and said, “Thanks Fluffy! I don’t know why you brought this to me; but, I’m sure glad you did! I can’t wait to get through reading it! No way I’m doing a page a day like William asked Elizabeth to do. I’m starting it right now. Hmm, I wonder if they are relations of mine… Anyway, on with page 1.”

Page one began with William addressing the love note, My darling Elizabeth. He continued on, expressing how much he loved her and his desire to return home as soon as possible. He reminded her at the end of the note, to read only one page a day. After Suzie read this, she thought, “Well, I’m not Elizabeth so I don’t need to read only one page a day. How silly.” So, Suzie moved on to page 2. She noticed that all of William’s notes were written on the right hand side but she also saw different writing on the left side. “Elizabeth must have written responses on the left.” thought Suzie.

Suzie continued to read aloud, “Oh William, I did it again. I have read three pages today. It’s just so difficult for me to wait! It’s just like waiting for you to come home. I want it to happen now. So, for now, I’ll agree to no more than three days of reading at a time, haha. I so love you and miss you. Elizabeth 23rd day of September, 2015.

Suzie continued on, page after page until she reached page 360. “Elizabeth, I have some bad news today. I will not be able to make it to day 365. I was caught by a bullet from the enemy. The doctors tell me they cannot operate to remove it because of where it is, near my heart. I will not last much longer with the bullet remaining inside of me. It’s good it’s my heart. It is breaking because of a bullet and because I will never get to see you again.” Suzie stopped reading so she could blow her nose. “This is like a story anyone may read; but, it’s about real lives. It’s about real people. I’m so sad for William; but, even more so for Elizabeth who became a widow a year earlier and yet just found out! I, I, just can’t believe his life ended before he was able to see her again!”

Day 360 was not finished yet. William continued writing and saying that because he will have died in battle, Elizabeth would become his heir and entitled to his extra pension; but, also entitled to the war bonds he had purchased before going off to war. He wrote that these bonds were buried underneath the front steps. Suzie wondered if Elizabeth actually read that far. “Could the bonds still be under the front steps?”

Suzie went tearing down the steps she had previously climbed so gingerly. She ran past Jo and out to the two-car garage she uses as a workshop. She put the code in to open the garage doors. Up they both went. Suzie could barely stand waiting! “Why is this thing so slow all of the time?!?” The door was barely halfway up when Suzie crouched down and went inside. She grabbed a shovel and some gloves and ran to the front steps.

By this time, Jo was out the door and looking at Suzie as if she was crazy. Suzie couldn’t form a proper sentence, she was so excited. Jo was left wondering what the heck was going on.

“Now, what was it William wrote? By the front steps? No, under the front steps!”, Suzie decided. She looked at the steps and wondered how she would shovel underneath them. She decided to go under the front porch and then under the steps. The shovel she brought with her was too big to use there, so she just put on the work gloves and began digging. She scraped the dirt away that was loose and then began to dig in earnest. Then, she felt something. “Is this it?” she asked. Jo yelled back, “is what it???” “Yes! It must be!”, Suzie exclaimed. She dug around what she soon saw to be a small metal container. Suzie scrambled out from underneath the steps and deck and ran up to Jo. She handed the container to Jo saying she was too excited to open it herself. Confused, Jo opened it having no idea what she would find inside. “It says something about the war. These papers look really old. Why would someone put this stuff in the ground? What is this, Suzie?” “I think they are war bonds that have not been cashed.” Suzie replied. “Wow! It looks like a lot of money! Two thousand dollars for this one - five for this”. Jo got into it and pulled out two more, “This one is just one thousand and this last one is twelve thousand dollars! Suzie, that’s twenty thousand dollars worth of bonds! How did you know they would be here?” Suzie responded, “let’s go inside. We have a lot to talk about.”

The two went inside and sat down at the kitchen table. Suzie wanted Jo to see the black book too so she ran upstairs to get it. There was Fluffy, sitting on the rocking chair with the book in his mouth. “Oh, Fluffy. Thanks for keeping that safe for me.” she said. And, she picked up the book and was surprised by Fluffy when he jumped onto her shoulder. The two went back downstairs and she laid everything on the table. Even Fluffy jumped down onto the table. Suzie sat down with Jo to explain all that she had learned that afternoon.

Chapter 2

The next day, Suzie called Jo and the two of them went to the bank together…just hoping there was a windfall to be had. The teller wasn’t really sure what to do with the bonds. They were so old, he had never seen anything like them. The two women were taken to a waiting area where they sat down in the most comfortable, black chairs they had ever had the pleasure to sit in. And, they waited. And, waited. Finally, about 40 minutes later, a beautiful older woman came and asked the ladies to follow her.

They ended up in a boardroom where there were 2 others - a man (on Zoom) and a woman (in person) - waiting for them. They were offered seats and the three of them sat down. “Allow me to introduce ourselves. I am the bank manager and my name is Audrey. This is Connie, my assistant and Liam who is from the Canadian War Museum. He is a curator there.”

“I’m sure you both must be wondering why you had to wait so long to see us. You two have something very special here with these bonds. As soon as I saw them, I just knew I had to reach Liam. Liam? Would you care to explain?” “Certainly! My pleasure! You see, ladies, er sorry, Suzie and Jo, these bonds are actually quite valuable.” Suzie jumped in and said, “yes, I believe there is $21,000 worth of bonds here! It’s very exciting!”

Audrey decided to jump in choosing her words carefully. “You see, the $21,000 is how much the original buyer paid for them. That amount is the value as of the date of purchase. These are 20 year bonds at 5.5%. Their monetary value alone after 20 years was $62,929. The bonds did allow for continuation after the 20 years but at just 1% interest for the added years. Now, 85 years later, you are looking at $147,179. But, that’s not all. Liam? Over to you.”

“Well, as Audrey said, I am from the Canadian War Museum and work as a curator there. We do not have any of these bonds in such great condition! As such, we would like to purchase the bonds from you. What this means to you is that in addition to the $147,179 value, we are prepared to offer you another $100,000. We would love to have these in our collection. What do you think?”

Suzie looked at Jo in disbelief! Suzie said, “of course! This is so exciting! Of course I will sell these to you. I would be crazy not to!” She had already been thinking about what she could do with the money. Maybe I should move and get a nicer place? No, this house means so much to me. I want to update it a bit and be able to make Elizabeth and William proud! “So”, Suzie said, “how do we go about doing a transaction like this? Certainly, it’s nothing I’ve ever done before!”

Liam answered right away. “Well, I will get you a cheque for $247, 179. It won’t take very long. We won’t be cashing the bonds in until we can make a deal with the bank to have them donated back to us afterwards. So, you see, the museum will get $147,179 for them when we cash them and they will have cost us just $100,000. This really is a great find for us. Thank you for saying yes!”

Connie asked Audrey, “would you like me to open a safety deposit box for Suzie to keep the bonds in while waiting for the deal to go through?” “Great idea, Connie. Thanks for thinking of that. Suzie, is that something you would like?” “Oh, most definitely. If I brought these back home I would be terrified something would happen to them. So, thanks for helping!”

And, just like that, the meeting was over. Goodbyes were said all around and Jo and Suzie left the bank. “Oh my goodness, Suzie! This is so surreal! Like a dream, really. What are you going to do with all the money?” “First”, Suzie said, “I’m taking you out for lunch! Anywhere you want!”

At that, the two went to the Chateau Laurier for ‘high tea’.