The Gift Book

“It all started the day she jumped.” The young woman nervously adjusted herself in her seat.

“It was almost as if she didn’t think she would die. She just spread her arms out and lept.”

Miss Gray huffs as if almost rewatching it in disbelief.

The detective across from her finishes his note and stretches his hand forward, adjusting his sleeve. He then places his knuckles on the side of an untouched coffee cup. He slides it to sit in front of her. Miss Gray slightly hesitates as if wanting something else. Then she sighs, she takes the cup into both hands, and carefully takes a sip.

“I hope it’s still warm.”

Gray just nods and gives a small uncomfortable smile.

“Anyway, I was stuck on the bridge when I saw her running on the highway. I got out of my car to get a better look through the pileup and I see her. She was so easy to pick from the mile of people yelling at her. She had freakishly long hair, it almost swept the ground as she dove between cars. Then, she finally turned to me and I saw her face. And she was smiling. And the more she ran, I realised she was actually … dancing.”

Detective Ryan steady writing hadn’t noticed she’d stopped telling her story to analyze him. She looked at his furrowed brow and wondered what he thought or if he actually was as indifferent as he was letting off. He looks up, pen in hand and disrupted the silence with,

“Dancing..?”

“Uh, yeah around the cars. Through the people. Like she was almost famous.”

“Famous” he mumbled with a laugh as she jotted down two question marks and the word “drugs” in parentheses.

Gray sat back uneasily in her chair.

“And earlier you said you talked to her?”

“Uh, Yes”

“And.?”

“Well, there were some officers chasing her trying to catch her and calm her down. She eventually reached me and there wasn’t really anywhere else for her to go. So, she went… over.”

“Alright, but what did she say before she jumped?”

The detective is slightly annoyed but keeping his composure.

“She said ‘You won’t be able to put it down.’ And she tossed it to me and leapt off the side.”

Miss Gray is uncomfortable.

Detective Ryan reaches to the left of him, and grabs the little black book perched on the couch cushion. He’d taken it from Miss Gray as evidence prior to the interview.

Gray shifts in her seat; she’s getting frustrated and this doesn’t go unnoticed.

Ryan lifts the book to eye view. , still out of the woman’s sight. The detective finally looks up at the young woman who is now distressed.

“Is this what she gave you?”

At the sudden acknowledgment of the book, Gray sucks in a sharp gasp, and sits slightly more erect.

“Yes. That’s it.” she reiterates.

He places it down on the table.

“And do you know what she meant by that? ‘You won’t be able to put it down’?” he repeats.

Without breaking eye contact with the book, Gray sighs.

“There’s just something about it, I guess...”

Unable to charge Gray with anything, he decided to let her go, packed up his evidence and excused himself.

***

The investigation started for Detective Ryan when he got a call one morning from his sister saying that Rachel, his niece, had run away. Once he heard the macabre news he instantly recalled the last time he saw her. Her hair only measured just passed her shoulders, which didn’t really add up. He’d gone over for dinner that night and he’d bought her her favorite ice cream, chocolate of course. They were celebrating her raising her full $20000 tuition amount. It was kind of like magic the way it happened in only a matter of days. Ryan had put it off to how many loving family members she has.

That night he barely got to see her though. She said she’d had a date and sped off almost as soon as he’d arrived.

“You won’t be able to put it down.” Detective Ryan repeated aloud to his empty bedroom.

He now held the book in front of him afraid to open it. Afraid to know exactly what drove his niece to this point. But also determined.

He carefully opens the book to the first page. All that lies there are the words “use wisely” in all lower case letters.

He flips the page.

On the next page there are lists of random things. No names or numbers. Just lists.

One list reads, “New shoes. Tom. Apartment. Puppy.”

The detective then turns to the last page that was written on and there are only two lists. The first one reads, “Tuition. Dale. Hair. Fame.”

The second is unfinished and just says, “Mo”.

The detective looks up from the book and breathes a hesitant sigh.

Then, he grabs a pen.