The Little Black Book With A Golden Heart

It was a Tuesday. Needless to say nothing much ever really seems to happen on Tuesdays. Its the day after Monday. Monday is filled with emotion, busyness, the drudgery of the weekend being over, fussing over matters that will prepare for the week ahead. Such is the thing about Mondays. But it was a Tuesday. And she was just exhausted.

She got off late, as usual, so late in fact that the subway was nearly empty. She collapsed into a seat, and her things came sprawling out around her. She gazed a ghoulish stare out of the foggy window. Something was wrong with the ventilation system. It was freezing. The lights were flickering. To keep her mind busy, she drew shapes and lines in the condensation of the glass that she peered out of. The train came to a rather sudden stop. A man in a trench coat and boulder hat, that sat one aisle over, began to get nervous. His knees began to knock. He kept looking at his watch.

The lights went completely out. For a few moments, she was scared and tried gathering her things closer rather frantically. The lights flickered back on, and the man was going through to the next car. Her eyes darted to the little, black, leather bound book that was tied with shiny leather cordage.

“Oh no.” she whispered.

In attempts to get the left behind item back to the man who seemed to have left it, she swept swiftly after him. By the time she had reached her foot into the next car, the subway was at the next station. The man was not hesitant in the slightest to dart out of the doors, on the far end, as soon as they cracked open. Lee yelled out after him,

“HEY! STOP! WAIT!” she stuck her head out the doors and yelled again, “You forgot…” But the man had disappeared.

Not wanting to wait for another train, as late as it was, she remained in the doorway and attempted to shout out again just in case he might turn around to get his fancy looking book. However, before Lee could get much out, the old woman behind her with her basket, bonnet, and a small Yorkie on her lap said,

“Mam, do you mind?! We all have places we need to be!”

And, so, she hung her head and apologized. The lady gruffed and began to pet the tiny fuzzy thing nestled into her frock.

Lee felt the lady’s anguish, it was almost a taste that could be sensed on the back of her tongue. So she headed to the next car over which had not one person by this point. She placed her giant hand bag and back pack next to her and sat the book on her lap.

“Perhaps, there's a number to call?” She thought aloud.

Upon opening the thick rigid cover, she saw golden pages and a built in accordion envelope with an eloquent silver button keeping the flap fastened. Curious, she unbuttoned it.

She ran a hundred degrees hotter, all of the sudden. Blood came rushing to her eyeballs and they began to pound. She slammed the book shut and shoved it into her bag, zipped it, and then checked once more to ensure that it was in fact zipped. Lee clutched the bag to her closely and loosed her scarf that felt like a boa constrictor cinching around her neck. There must've been several thousand dollars in there. All hundreds. A nice little stack of them. Still no idea if there was a number to call, she went through all the possible scenarios. What if someone saw me take this book? Whose this money for, who was that man? Should I find out? Should I keep it? Then again what kind of trouble could I now be getting into? Was this drug related? Why was that man so anxious?

The subway arrived at Lee’s platform. She darted out and ran all the way to her flat. She normally was quite hasty, clutching her pepper spray, but this day… she ran without ceasing. Once inside she panted, locked the several locks, and slid her back down the brown, dented, metal door.

Her alarm clock went off from across the room. Still curled up by the door, she pushed her self to a seated position. She took off her scarfs, coat, gloves, and the one shoe that clung to her foot. She started the coffee maker and scratched her butt as she headed to the shower with her eyes nearly shut. Upon remembering, her eyes shot open, allowing shampoo to drip into them. With haste she got the remaining shampoo out of her eyes and hair. A towel went whipping around her body, another twisted into her hair. She wanted to see about this book, perhaps it was all a dream, but first, coffee.

She picked up her purse, which laid sideways by the door, and had a seat on her still freshly made bed. With her cup of coffee steaming in the morning sunlight, taking a sip, she slid out the book. Indeed, it was true. She clunked her thick coffee mug on the night stand beside her. She grabbed out her cell phone and a cigarette, and dialed the number scrawled on a golden leaf sticker located in the front. She lit the cigarette and took a few puffs while looking for an ashtray. She found one and flicked in a smoldering ash.

“Hello.”

Lee's eyebrows lifted.

“Yeah, hi. Is this John?”

“Yes, who are you.”

“My name is Lee. I, uh, have this book... “

“How did you get my number?! I don't have any Idea what your talking about.”

“But, sir..”

The phone clicked and silence followed. So, she tried calling back once more, but no one answered. She counted the money, and it was down to the exact dollar that she needed to pay off all of her past due bills, money that she had borrowed to keep her lights on and food in her fridge, and that moped she had her eye on. She was still wondering what to do. So, she flipped back to the golden leaf to check the number. She was shocked. She sipped her coffee and put on her reading glasses for good measure. It now said “Leeandra Wright” with her phone number on it. The past due notice and the 72 hour notice to pay or vacate sat there staring Lee down. As strange as it was, Lee felt this was the answer to her prayer. She was going to get caught up on everything and stay in her flat.

She made the deposit and paid off everyone and everything over the course of a few days. Feeling really good, she went off to work, on her brand new moped. The next day after that, she went to look inside the book. Before, when she first went through it’s pages, there was nothing written. Now, oddly enough, there was an address ascribed on it’s first page. She checked the envelope, and there was another stack of cash. But, this time, it was only a matter of a few hundred. She decided to stop at the bakery for breakfast.

Upon walking out of the bakery, with a full mouth of coffee cake, a rugged looking young lady asked Lee for money stating that she only needed another $315 to get her and her children through the rest of the month. She told the woman sorry I cant help, and went on her way. When she got back to her moped there was a ticket plastered to the wind visor. She was parked in a no parking zone and the ticket amount was for exactly $315, which happened to be what was left in the little black book. She checked the address that had appeared in the book. It was astonishing that it was the same address as the bakery. Lee could hardly believe it. During her lunch hour she called and payed the ticket. A bit put out, she investigated the little black book once again. She squinted her eyes as she struggled to believe that, yes, in fact, there was another address written sloppily under the address from before. In the envelope? Yes, in the envelope was $10,000.

After work she traveled outside of the city to the address. It was a burnt down house with a family staying in a shed outside of it. Lee knew what she had to do. Even thought this could have afforded her the down payment on a shop front to build her own business, and get her out of the restaurant with that nasty boss of hers, she knew she had to do it. She knocked on the door. Out came a man and a woman with an infant latched to her bosom. Lee, without a word, handed them the $10,000. Bewildered, they all hugged her and told her that is what they needed to get into the house they all wanted to move into before the fire ever happened.

The next morning, $20,000 showed up in the envelope, and also a new address. She went to that address early before work. It was a vacant shop front with everything Lee needed to start her boutique besides the product. A realtor was standing outside tapping her foot, waiting for a no show.

Lee walked up to her and asked, “How much is this place going for anyways?"

“$15,000, but no one has shown up for the walk-through yet.” said the realtor

“Hmm, well, I guess I’ll take it.”

And the next day there was another $20,000 in the envelope. But, this time, there was no address. So, she kept $5,000 from the day before and headed to one of the last few days of her job at the restaurant. But, on the way, she dropped the book in front of the lady outside of the bakery.

“Mam! Wait! STOP!” the lady shouted, as she dropped her sign, and ran after Lee. But Lee had already taken off on her shiny new moped, and rode off into the amber sunrise.