A 'Little Black Book'

Day 1

The year 2020, had been a very trying year for most in these United States.. but, for Malcolm.. unbeknownst to everyone else in his small community.. the year 2020 had been… let’s just say, “quite giving”, in the strangest of ways.

You see, Malcolm was a person who liked to grow his own food and seeing that at one time, in this very uncertain year of 2020… a growing concern amongst many, was that supplies of everything (including food) could become scarce and maybe even impossible to get… but, Malcolm.. he was not worried at all.. about food supply.

One day, Malcolm decided he would add a fourth garden to his backyard area.. up against the back fence, way over in the furthest right corner of his yard. And after a few hours of digging and row plowing.. Malcolm became a bit annoyed & unnerved at the sounds of constant police sirens, seemingly in very close proximity to his on block!

He decided he would pack it in and continue at a later time, but just as he reached for a few of his gardening tools, a small black duffle bag flew over his 6ft fence, falling into the far corner of his newly plowed gardening space!

It was then that he noticed footsteps, on the other side of the fence, leaving the area quickly and soon fading off into the distance.

Malcolm eyed the bag, from a few feet away, for a few moments before having an unnecessary.. (seeing that whoever was there, was now gone) ..but, uncontrollable urge to call out “Hello?”

No answer. So he again, called out.. “Hello… is there someone over there”? Again.. no answer.

With no one responding, Malcom’s curiosity decided, It would be braver than Malcolm and slowly creeped into his reflexes, convincing him to at least walk towards the bag and “see” what's in it!.

With uncertain and cautious hands, Malcolm unzipped the bag revealing what appeared to be a large amount of money! So much money, that it made him jump back away from the bag.

Which was when he began to again, noticed the police sirens.. which had never actually stopped.. it was just, he had stopped noticing them.

It was also at that very moment, that Malcolm put “two & two” together… and quickly assessed that, maybe the sirens were because of this bag and the footsteps he heard, running off into the distance, earlier.

Malcolm has never been a law breaker and would have never.. (before this moment) considered breaking any kind of laws… but…

Malcolm has also never had a bag full of “more money than he’s ever seen” in one place.. suddenly drop into his garden!

Realizing that something needed to happen, other than him standing there “looking” at the bag.. Malcolm decided that taking the bag Inside of his home, would be an “ok” first step.. so that’s what he did.

While inside, Malcolm found himself again.. staring at the bag, as if though it was a thing to fear. So, his curiosity again.. decided that maybe he should see how much money there actually was!

As he began to open the bag, out of his peripheral.. he notice that there were now, police officers trying to peer over the 6ft fence, into his yard.

He nervously rushed over to the window, closing the blinds in fear of the police seeing the bag sitting on his dining table, through the window.

An extreme level of anxiety, had now settled on Malcolms being and he is now pacing back & forth.. to & fro, the window for a peek… & then.. back over to the bag, for a peek.. until, one of the officers catches a glimpse of Malcolm peeking out the blinds.

Malcolm see’s the officer, see him.. and begins to “Oh God” himself into a slight panic attack.

It takes the officer about 3 minutes to travel around the outside perimeter of the fence, to Malcolms front porch where he knocks on the door.

Malcolm quickly gathers his calmness and answers the knock.

Malcom: “Hello officer, what can “I” do for ya’?

Officer: “I noticed you peeking out your blinds there and decided to come and ask you if you had noticed anything “weird”, within the last hour or so?

Malcolm: “No… haven’t noticed anything “weird”, other than the sirens and now you guys! Is everything ok”?

Officers: “Well, there’s a fugitive in the area, so you may want to keep an eye out for that and I’d suggested making sure your doors and windows are locked”.

Malcolm: “Oh, oh wow! Thanks for the heads up! Glad I didn’t go back out into my garden, with all of that mess going on!

Officer: Yea.. no, don’t do that… at least not until we’ve cleared the area.

Malcolm: “Sure thing officer! I’m inside and I’ll be staying inside! Thanks again for the information. Have a good rest of the day!

Officer: “You too, be safe and lock those doors… and windows.

Malcolm: “Yes sir”.

Malcolm closes the door and lets out a huge sigh of relief. He discretely peeks out the window, making sure the officer has left the front porch and goes back to the bag of money.. again staring in disbelief that there’s a bag full of money, sitting on his table.

He goes back to his front door and peeks, making sure not to noticeably move the blinds.

He see’s that the officer and his colleagues have moved on to other yards and neighbors. He checks the backyard once again and seeing that there is no one moving about back there, he focuses back on the bag of money.

He sits down and manually begins to count some of it.. and after counting at least 5 stacks of $1,000 each, bundles… with what appears to be at least ten or more of these stacks left over… he comes to the conclusion that there must be at least $15 to 20 thousand, in the bag!

He nervously laughs at the situation, not even expecting the possibilities that are about to unfold.

Day 2

After going the rest of the entire first day without hearing anything further from the police, or seeing anything suspicious.. and now knowing that the small duffle contained exactly $20,000 … Malcolm, has spent most of his morning mentally planning out what how he’s going to spend his knew found wealth and hasn’t even considered the fact that, this money.. belongs to someone that may come looking for it.

After hours upon hours of self future planning, Malcolm finally thinks about his newly dug garden again… but, not because of the digging.. more-so because of the money being dropped there.

Shortly there after, Malcolm wants to go and view the spot where his newfound fortune landed, so he puts on his shoes and ventures out to the area where all of this be… what’s that?

Malcolm notices that another object, is now in the vicinity of where the money was dropped, the day before.

He looks around to see if anyone is present and noticing no one.. he gets closer to the object.

He now sees that the object is a pamphlet of sorts, or maybe some kind of little black book.

He’s a bit perplexed about this new item and wonders “did the police not see it?

He didn’t remember the police actually coming into his yard, so maybe they hadn’t spotted it. But then he thought… neither had he!

Was it under the bag and he just didn’t notice it, when he pick the bag up?

Well, this time.. Malcolm didn’t need much encouragement from his curiosity. He quickly grabbed up the small book and headed back into the house, where he open it and immediately froze in gripping fear.

“I Know You Have My Money” was the words written on the first page of the small book.

Stunned fear, almost prevented Malcolm from looking any further than that front page, but Malcolm decided that wouldn’t help the situation he now found himself in and if anything.. whoever wrote this, may have more to say.. on the matter.

So Malcolm flipped to the next page, where he found more writings.. …directed at him!

The Writing

“Ok… there’s three ways we can handle this.

1.) You could turn the money over to the police and tell them you found it, in one of your “gardens”.. but then.. that would put you in both, the suspicions of the police and myself… wondering if you’ve kept some of it, which could turn up nothing for them… but, for me? Well… you’d be on MY hook for EVER.. as a “not so stand up guy” you know? A guy that didn’t have my back, even after he originally tried to keep what wasn’t his and you know.. that could cause me to feel a certain way, about your health.

2.) You could try to keep it.. but then that would mean you’d have to avoid Me, the rest of your life because… well, you would have stole from me! And I wouldn’t let that go! …OR…

3.) You could meet me somewhere discreet… give me back what’s mines… and I’ll give you a lil somethin’ for looking out for me and being a stand up guy and all.

Hey… it’ll be more than what you had, before all of this… and more than what you got now, because… you really don’t have Anything, now!

I know you have the money, “in your house”.. right now, but…

…it’s not yours and you’d never be able to spend ANY of it, with ME out here, so….

…you have three choices.

The Delimma

Malcolm, in his short life of 33 years, had not been considered by many of those who knew him, to be much of anything outside of the ordinary… but, the one thing NO one Malcolm has known, in his short 33 years of life, has ever considered Malcolm to be… is stupid!

And that is, because Malcolm really hadn’t had a true opportunity.. to BE stupid! …save for the time he took that bag of money that dropped from nowhere and never considered the possibility of someone coming for it! …yea, accept “that” time.

Well, this was the opportunity for Malcolm to redeem that short stint of stupidity and that redemption came in the form of choosing number three.

However… immediately after choosing number three… another one of Malcolms sensibilities decided to make an appearance!

And unlike the curiosity of “curiosity”… ‘paranoid panic’ decided that it wanted to be, panicked AND paranoid!

“What if… he ONLY wants you to bring him the money, so that he can then KILL You... ...and bury you in your OWN fuk’n Garden??!!!

To which another of Malcolm’s sensibilities responded.. “No no no… he’s going to give him a reward, for Returning the money! C’mon guys, Stop being pussies and be a pair of ME’s!

(You should obviously know whose doing the talking there.)

At this point, Malcolm himself.. addressed himself, by grabbing his own head and saying “Ok.. stop… STOP!! Get it together, Man! Let’s think about this…. a LITTLE bit more! ..and this time, let's use a little bit more rationale!”

Should I just take this to the police and take my… …naaah, he said that he would… well, he basically threatened my Life, is what he did with THAT choice

Ok, ok…. I’ll just meet him somewhere and we can… ………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Well, that’s a short story! The rules didn’t say it had to be finished, only that it had to be between 600/2,000 words.. include $20 grand and a little black book. “I” think “I”ve done that.

How ‘bout make a winner out of what’s here.. and then let’s finish the story?!