Hush; It's a secret.
Tonight was going to prove to be a life changing moment for me without my realizing just how utterly changing it was about to become. It was a night like no other, one where I had decided to enjoy being in my own company, despite the weatherman calling for a possible change in the current conditions as well as usually only going out in the presence of friends. I found my motivation, gathered my thoughts, grabbed my house key and off I went to a local pub to sit in silence for a short time to ponder my life and those in it or where my future might be trying to take me these days. The walk was a short one filled with chaos on the streets and plenty of traffic to keep my eyes whirling trying to see everything in the short 10 minute walk I was embarking on. I rounded the corner, caught a glimpse of my final destination and breathed a sigh of relief knowing I could escape the street noise I had just walked through. As I entered and found a quiet spot to be alone at the bars end, removed my jacket, hung it on the tip of my chair back, ordered up a dirty martini with extra olives and quickly took my first sip. The pub was rather empty except for the bartender and a couple of business men sitting at a tall round table off in the back corner. The men seemed to be minding their own business and had been completely oblivious to my arrival. Their voices were a bit muffled, yet could be heard echoing under the soft music playing in the background. Every now and then I could almost make out a sentence or two and before I knew it, was paying more attention trying to tune into their conversation than I was to my own thoughts I originally wanted to sort out. As these men continued to talk, it peeked my interest as to what they were conversing about, maybe more so due to feeling relaxed from my drink or for not having a care in the world being all alone on this particular night. As I sat sipping on my drink, time began passing quickly and soon the weather began to change from what started as a clear comfortable night, into being a little cold, windy and damp. I wanted so badly to know what the objective of their secret conversation was among themselves, so I decided to use the bathroom that was approximately six feet directly across from where they had been sitting all night. Funny how pub bathrooms are a bit more sound proof than I had remembered in my younger years, as I stood behind a closed door trying to pick up on any clues they left to be heard. Sadly there was not going to be any shred of info to cure my thirst for being nosy, so I finished my little rendezvous in the bathroom and walked out. In that short amount of time in the bathroom, less than a three minute time lapse, the men were gone! I just stood in silence in an empty doorway a bit miffed at not filling the void of piecing together their reasoning for being at the same place as me on this random evening. But I collected my thoughts as I stepped fully out of the bathroom and began to walk past their table. As I passed where these men had been sitting, I took one last glance back still pondering their conversation like an unsolved mystery. Then it happened. I spotted a little black book under the chair that held the man whose back was against the wall. Perhaps it had fallen out of his pocket when he was putting his jacket on and he was not aware of it being left behind for me to stumble on. I was in shock and not fully sure of what the contents held or if there would be any information for returning it to it's owner. My heart began racing as I flipped it open to the inside cover looking for any info to aid in it's return. Sadly, there were no names of people, just names of financial institutions and what seemed to be code words and numbers; lots of numbers. Every number was a large amount and they each began with a dollar sign. What could this possibly be, I wondered as I thought silently about handing it off to the bartender before quickly drowning that thought with one of not keeping my mind spinning on figuring out what I just found and how it might impact me to know what those men were up to. I soon snapped out of the moment, turned toward the door and as I peered outside, noticed the weather quickly becoming more intense than when I left home. I knew I had a little walk ahead of me in uglier weather than at the start of my night, so I easily made the decision to decline on one more drink, tucked the little black book into my inner jacket pocket as I put it on and zipped up, walked past the bartender saying my farewell and heading home. I suppose being left to my own company and no one left in the pub to occupy my curiosity any longer, my choice to leave was a much easier one than normal that night thanks to having this new book in my clutches peeking my curiosity.