Adventure Awaits

The little black book was familiar in her hands, like a long-forgotten memory. The cover was lightly textured, almost like leather. There was a little gold paper boat embossed at the bottom of the cover followed by the words ‘Adventure Awaits.’

Her first thought when she saw the book sitting on the bench was that someone must have left it there. She looked around the park but it was empty other than the ducks next to the creek.

“Hello?” She called, hoping someone would hear her, “did someone lose their book?”

But there was no reply.

Rather than lying flat and closed upon the bench, the book was slightly open, as though it was simply bursting with things to share. As she approached the book to see if it had a name written inside, it seemed less like a book and more like a journal or a notebook. She hesitated before picking it up, pulled between not wanting to intrude upon someone else’s private thoughts and wanting to help return the book to its rightful owner if she could. She thought perhaps it was better that she picked up the book, rather than someone who might toss it out without looking or who might not respect the privacy of a stranger.

On the inside cover, beneath the notebook’s suggestion, ‘In case of loss: please return to:’ there was nothing written. The inside of the back cover had no name either. Instead, it had a little pouch nearly bursting with its contents. Not wanting to intrude, she returned to the front pages.

On the first page there was a solitary sentence, written in beautifully curling calligraphy. But the sentence was not what made her quickly close the book, as best she could, and check that she was still alone. Pushed deep into the crease of the first page was a hundred dollar bill.

She opened the book slowly once more, covering the hundred with her hand. She read the sentence, hoping again for a clue as to the owner. ‘Tides and rivers will not take you where you wish to go, let the horses guide your journey.’

Tentatively she turned the page, hoping she might yet find a clue as to what to do with the little book. There was another hundred stuffed in the crease of the notebook. She shut the book quickly.

It felt heavy in her hands as she watched the ducks and the burbling creek. She could not leave it there hoping the owner would return now that she knew what was inside. But it also felt wrong to abscond with the thing.

She sat with it in her hands, staring at the autumn leaves that were beginning to think about changing to the brilliant shades of yellow and red that would come in a week or two. When she felt as though nearly an hour had passed, she thought about tucking the book into her bag and simply taking it home. But it still felt wrong, so she continued sitting where she found it.

Her eyes were drawn to the creek, mesmerized by the place where it emerged from a little archway made of bushes. It felt like magic how little leaves and sticks would sometimes appear, seemingly out of nowhere. Then, she could hardly believe her eyes. Here, where she expected to see only leaves and sticks floating upon the creek, came a black paper boat with gold edges, folded in the same manner as the paper boat on the cover of the notebook.

Clutching Adventure Awaits, she rushed over to pluck the boat from the water. The paper was smooth to the touch, like the cheek of a lover. There were gold designs embossed upon it. She tucked Adventure Awaits safely in her bag so she could inspect the paper boat further. As she unfolded it, she found within its creases an ornate golden key, the kind that opens antique doors. Once unfolded, the designs revealed themselves to be two horses pulling a carriage outlined in gold and beneath their feet was a golden sea made of roiling waves. Her jaw nearly dropped. This could not be a coincidence. In tiny writing underneath the horses the connection was confirmed, ‘Adventure awaits those who follow, Ocean and Stable.’

“Ocean and Stable,” she repeated under her breath, wondering about the capitalization of the words.

Thinking she remembered an Ocean Avenue nearby she got out her phone to see if Stable could be a cross-street. It was, and it was not far. She felt strange taking the notebook, but it seemed she was meant to follow this clue, and she could not stay in the park forever.

As she left the park, she put her hand on her bag, feeling the comforting shape of the book inside. Each step seemed to take ages, the blocks felt long as she tried to keep a reasonable pace. And then she was there, at the crossroads of Ocean and Stable in front of an ornately carved wooden door. The door had once been painted green, but she thought with the way it had weathered it was surely even more beautiful now than when the paint was fresh. The style of the carving clearly matched the key in her hand, but still she hesitated. It felt strange to try to open a random door on a random street.

After knocking and waiting several times, she tried the key. It slid in easily enough, but when she tried to turn it, first one way and then the other, it did not want to turn. She nearly gave up, but old locks can be tricky things so she took a deep breath into her heart and tried one last time with her eyes closed. The key turned beneath her fingers. Her eyes flew open and without hesitating she opened the door.

The room was dark on the other side of the door and it took her eyes a moment to adjust. The first thing she noticed was a box on the floor, then a stairway began to materialize beyond the box.

“Hello?” she called as she entered, but the only answer was her own echo.

She stepped inside and shut the door behind her. She picked up the box, though she could not make out the carving upon it in the low light. At the top of the stairs was a small apartment with big windows in the living room overlooking the street. The apartment was completely bare. A few cupboard doors were open to reveal the emptiness within. It seemed as though no one had been here in a very long time.

The illustration on the box was smaller and carved in wood, but the horses pulling their carriage across the sea was the same. The box was locked.

She sat down on the floor in the sunlight streaming through the big dusty windows and pulled out the notebook. This time she leafed through the pages. Nearly every one of them had a hundred dollar bill stuffed in the crease of the book.

She put the book down, unsure if it was real anymore. Just to check, she tried plugging her nose and breathing, but she could not breathe with her nose shut, so this was definitely not a dream. She slid one of the hundreds out of the book and held it up to the light. The watermarks checked out. She pulled out the next bill. They were manufactured in different years, so they clearly had been in circulation and were not something that could be traced. She slid both bills back into the pages they had come from.

She turned her attention back to the locked box. It was all so clearly connected. Feeling a bit silly, she checked the back pocket of the notebook for a key. There was more money, and a small key.

Her hands were shaking, making it hard to fit the key in the hole, but the key fit the box. Inside there was a full velvet bag the length and width of dollar bills. On the inside of the lid in the same gorgeous calligraphy was inscribed ‘Let the Adventure Begin.’ She picked up the velvet bag, almost scared to check the contents. Underneath the bag was a note that seemed to be so old that the paper might fall apart at any moment. The calligraphy read ‘When you are finished please lock up and leave the key to the house in the mailbox next to the door. Enjoy the Chronicle of your Adventure.’

The instructions made it seem like perhaps the money really was intended to be a mysterious gift, which would make leaving the money locked in the little apartment possibly a rude thing to do. Clearly someone had gone to a lot of trouble to put this all together.

Tentatively she peeked inside the velvet bag, shutting it immediately. It was more money. She felt a pressure to follow the instructions and leave, but she could not bring herself to move. She placed the velvet bag back in the box and took to removing the hundreds from between the pages of the notebook. She tried shaking them out, but they were stuck inside and had to be removed one by one. She wondered about the hands that had put them there. It felt comforting and calming to perform a mundane task. Hundred after hundred, it was more money than she had ever seen in one place in her entire life. Her strong sense of disbelief made everything feel surreal and strange.

When she was done, she took the money from the back pocket and placed it beside the other neatly stacked bills. The notebook felt lighter, like it was relieved to release the great strain of holding so much more than it was ever meant to. She took a pen out of her bag and began to write about what had just happened. Writing it down felt comforting, like perhaps she was not losing her mind, or perhaps it was just a pretty story. But then there was the money still sitting beside her.

She began to count. It felt like play money in her hands. Two thousand in the back pocket. Five thousand stuffed in the pages. Even when she pushed the stack down with her hand it was thicker than the notebook itself. She couldn’t understand how it had all fit inside. No wonder the poor little book had been unable to shut. Thirteen thousand in the velvet pouch.

Placing the money inside the box, she began to feel like maybe this gift really was hers to receive. She locked the box and tucked the key back into the back pocket of the notebook. She considered placing the box in a cupboard or leaving it on the kitchen counter, but she felt she could not let her mysterious benefactor down, so she placed the box in her bag.

She tore a page from the notebook and wrote a note to her mysterious benefactor.

‘I don’t know how or why this has happened. Thank you for the notebook, the box and everything within. Please know that I am following the call of Adventure and that this moment will forever change my life. It is all too magical and strange to not let it truly and deeply change me.’

Then she folded the paper into the same kind of paper boat. She locked the door behind her, tucked the key into a crease in the boat and put it into the mailbox beside the door.

Her back to the door, she clutched her bag with the box and notebook inside to her chest and a smile began to spread across her face. It felt as though the empty notebook was buzzing with anticipation, waiting for her story to fill its pages. As she walked away the glow within her grew, each step bringing her closer to her new magnificent adventure.