The Lucky Tens

As an avid recycler and lover of all things repurposed, these little thrift stores have always been like quick sand to me. I love wandering through the isles of other’s previously well loved items. Bored and trying to figure out what else to do with myself on that rainy day I almost left empty handed because nothing was catching my eye, new store so probably not many donations yet. But as I thumbed through the small stack of books I found the cutest little black notebook, well planner it turned out to be, full of small notes of someone’s day to day and important appointments from the year 1964. Her handwriting was beautiful and her days seemed to be filled with one luncheon or tea or another. I knew I had found my read for the evening and paid the dollar I owed for the book and headed home to examine this great find. The evening, unfortunately, had other plans for me.

Sitting on the side of the interstate with a flat in the middle of the one thunderstorm we have been witness to in over seven months is not how I planned to spend the last hours of my coveted day off. Yet, that’s exactly where I was, and on an estimated wait of forty five minutes from AAA, great. I called my husband to let him know that I definitely wouldn’t be home in time to do dinner so he should probably grab something and go ahead and help the kids with their homework, called my boss to let her know that I also wouldn’t make it to the six thirty zoom meeting, and then called my mom to be a baby. After what felt like eons, the storm finally let up and wouldn’t you know the AAA guy showed up exactly four minutes later, guess he didn’t feel like getting wet. I finally dragged into the house about seven thirty to find empty pizza boxes, back packs, and dirty socks strewn across the living room and I was done. I went and ran a hot bath and turned my music up and tried to salvage what little time I had left of my “relaxing” day. Relaxing my arse!

A few days went by before I even thought about my new little treasure again. I was having a late glass of wine and went looking for something to read. I had to go dig it out of the back seat but as soon as I opened it I remembered why I had bought it. The words jumped off the pages and seemed exciting just because of how striking her handwriting was. I thumbed through the pages reading her little notes about her daughter’s dress appointments for prom and church services she had a special role in. Near the back of the book the wine had started to warm me up and my eyes were getting heavy but I wanted to look through the address section in the back of the book before I headed upstairs for the night. I found the tab and read through her list of friends and associates and the little notations beside their names. While giggling at the names and her personal opinions of some of the ladies she knew an envelope fell out onto my lap. It said “Special $10 Bills Do Not Open Or Spend!!!”. I will admit that I have never been good about following rules so I opened it up to see what was so special about the ten dollar bills in there.

Nothing particularly stood out to me about them, not that it would, other than maybe they were very old. At that point I really couldn’t stay awake much longer to do my normal Google detective work so I tucked them back inside the envelope and the book until I had time to mess with it. I mentioned it to my mom the next day but with the boys playing in the State Championship football game that Saturday my brain was everywhere but on the “special ten dollar bills”. Packing for two adults, three teenagers, and a toddler will really test your mental endurance. It was almost another full two weeks before I thought of them again and called my dad to ask if he had any knowledge of old or special money. He didn’t know much about paper currency, as he dealt mostly with coins, but he put me in touch with a guy who was able to set up an appointment with me to look at the bills.

I met with James early on a Saturday morning and it was especially warm that day. I bought him a coffee and we took an indoor table so the wind wouldn’t aggravate us while he examined my loot. As soon as he looked at the first bill his eyes lit up, “Pardon my language, but where the hell did you luck into these at again?” he asked. I told him about the rainy day at the thrift store and how they had sat in my night stand now for quite some time. We talked a little more and he asked me if he could snap some pictures before we left and he chuckled when he asked me if I believed in fate or luck. When we finished up he gave me his business card and told me that he would be back in touch when he had my appraisal ready and that I better really love that planner notebook I had found because it was my lucky token. When I got back home I tucked the special bills back into their home in the notebook and put it back in my nightstand to wait on James to tell me what was next.

It only took two days. Who knew that life could change that fast? Two days is in all an incredibly short amount of your lifetime and in that blink of an eye you can be living a completely different life. The bills were never circulated due to a misprint and they were two of just twenty now known to be in someone’s possession. There was a museum that wished to remain anonymous until the deal was finalized that wanted to offer us three million for both of the bills. I told them to give us a few days to think it over and we called James the next day to tell him we would accept the offer. That little black book remains in my bedside table and I still pull it out from time to time to admire the handwriting and today I added my own note to the back: “04/15/20 this little notebook changed my life, thank you always. Signed, Mia”