The Small Black Book

There I was, sitting on my sofa, looking at myself through the reflection of my TV screen. What a failure I am ...for the 150th time. I just found out that I got rejected on a book I wrote and submitted to an agency that hates me or my ideas ...oh I'm a writer by the way ...and from what I know, not a very good one. This story that I just worked on and submitted to the agency meant a lot to me. I thought it'll be my big break ...just like all the other stories I submitted and got rejected in the past. What do I do now? I'm a failure at what I thought I did best, at what I thought was going to change my life, was going to make me rich. I always thought I was going to be the next Jerimiah Munitz. The greatest, most successful writer ever to live. He is the William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, H.P. Lovecraft of our time. All of his books make MILLIONS, all agencies love him, FREAKING Hollywood loves him. Every writer wants to be him. I want to be him. But I guess I have to accept it. I'm no Jerimiah Munitz. He's a dream that can never happen ...for me anyway. As I brood away on this sofa and my reflection on the TV screen, my phone interrupts me... I never hated the sound of my ringtone more, and the only thing to make it stop is to answer it or reject it. I slide my hands in my ever-so-tight denim jeans pocket to retrieve the phone. ...hmm I've never been called by an unknown number before. Although I hate this ringtone so much right now, I'm attempting to reject this call, but I do want to find out who's calling me ...oh well, I swipe up with my thumb to answer the call.

"...Hello"

"Am I speaking to Booker Witsmoore"

Sorry forgot to mention I'm Booker by the way.

"...yeah...err...speaking. Sorry, who is this?"

"Sorry, my name is Joseph ...Joseph Reed. We haven't met before."

"...Yeah...erm...can I help you with something ...Joseph?

"Ahaha, more like I can help you Booker"

"With... what exactly?..."

"-Your story ...the story you wrote! Last year ...about the missing girl. ...Teardrop, I believe it was called."

Teardrop was a book I wrote at the beginning of last year about a girl who goes missing in a parallel universe and can't find her way back in other words it was a flop, I submitted it to eleven agencies and they didn't want it. I don't know what the heck this guy wants with it!

"...er...thank you..."

"I want to fund you. Give you what you deserve Booker, you're an amazing writer."

"Is this a joke?"

"No, It's not a joke... take a look at your bank account for me Booker"

"For what?"

"Stop talking and take a look"

I don't know what this guy wants from me, all I can make out is that he likes a book I wrote last year, which was rejected by ELEVEN agencies and now this guy is somewhat interested and wants to, let me quote, fund me. He also is calling me with no caller ID, which makes this less suspicious. So I go to my bank account app while on the phone with this Joseph guy, and oh boy!, you would not believe me if I told you, what I am seeing... 20 THOUSAND DOLLARS, has just been transferred to my bank account... 20 GRAND

"Wait ...-you...I...why...you gave me 20 grand!?"

"I told you, Booker, you're an amazing writer, consider me a fan-"

"But you gave me 20 grand!"

"Then consider me rich. You deserve it"

"I don't know you, I just can't take 20 grand, man"

"Well let's meet then, I'll be at Romans Cafe on Old Street, be there at 3 ...and don't be late Booker"

"-wait what!?"

And there he goes, a random rich stranger who just gave me 20 thousand dollars, just because he enjoyed a book I made. Now who is this stranger, I have no idea. Never heard of the name Joseph Reed before ...but I'll guess I'll find out. I have twenty minutes to get to Roman Cafe, and I did exactly that. I get into this cafe, I look around to see if he's here, to be honest, I don't know who I'm looking for but only a name. It takes a few seconds before I here.

"Booker! Over here!"

I see him. I'll be totally honest that's exactly how I imagined him. He looked rich, he was wearing a navy blue 3 piece suit, a very nice suit I must say, clean shaved, you can tell he looks after himself. I on the other hand looked homeless, I haven't shaved in a while nor had a haircut, was wearing the same t-shirt for the last 3 days, even these denim blue jeans. I walked over to him unsteadily as I get to him, he's sitting on the cafe sofa with his two hands in the air, wide apart, and goes...

"Booker Witsmoore in the flesh, have a seat"

"Er...Thanks"

As I take a seat, he puts his hand out to shake my hand

"Nice to finally meet you, my man"

"Yeah, nice to meet you ...look about the money I-"

"Ah don't worry about it man, you deserve it, you should celebrate ...or use it to have a haircut haha..."

I laugh with him on that one, it is the truth I really could use the haircut.

"Yeah, I really could..."

"Well now you have the money now Booker, do whatever you want"

"Thanks, really ...I don't know what to say..."

"You said thanks didn't you, need nothing more"

"Yeah ...erm...can I ask you something though?"

"Sure!"

"Why me, out of nowhere ...my books...they were never looked at by anyone ...and now suddenly you..."

I'm not wrong though. He hits all the red signals. I mean c'mon, why would anyone give twenty thousand dollars to a person like me, a failed writer. He's rich, he doesn't care about me, I can tell that he wants something. But why me, well ...let me fish it out.

"Well... let's just say I'm a fan of you Booker ...and...I'm a fan of ambition. Nothing is better than a guy with great ambition. You were rejected so SO many times throughout your life, and yet you don't let go... that is what I call ambition my man, so I thought ...ahh why don't I help a guy out, you know"

And then he just stared at me, like looking into my soul type of stare, which felt like ages. And then finally he spoke...

"But... what if I told you, Booker, that you can get so much more than that twenty grand"

"What you mean?"

"Every writer has ideas, and every writer stores those ideas...into a small black book, even ...Jerimiah Muritz, believe it or not."

"What!? No, he doesn't"

"Oh yes! every single one of them, stored away in his office, in a safe."

"Okay. And how'd you know this exactly?"

"I have very accurate inside sources. Everyone who works for Mister Muritz knows about the small black book. Everyone!"

"So, what you want me to do?"

"You have an opportunity here, Booker, you can go away with that twenty grand, live your life, write another failed book ...or...you can get yourself ideas that are worth millions, in a small black book, that'll let you last forever... you choose"

This guy didn't give me twenty grand to help me, he gave me twenty grand to bribe me to do a heist with him ...which I'm not going to lie, it sounds very attempting. I mean Jerimiah Muritz's ideas, having a hold of them, I can be invincible ...I'll be the greatest of all-time in the writer's world. I'm not getting anywhere using my ideas for sure. I can do this, I don't how but I can.

"So hypothetically, if I was going to steal this small black book, hypothetically, how would I do it?

"Well, that'll be easy, because lucky for you, I can get you there ...I know guys."

"If it's that easy then why don't you do it?"

"People know me, man, no offense you're a nobody. but you're ambitious... ambitious for storytelling."

"Who are these people?"

"I can set a meeting, you can meet them tomorrow, what'd you say?"

Took me a minute to think, right now I was staring at him.

"...alright, let's do it"

"Alright my man!"

He leaned over to grab my hand to shake it and gets up from the sofa ready to leave.

"Keep your phone on alert Booker, I'll message you about the meeting"

I can do this, It's a risk but imagine the outcome if I get it right. I'll have agencies working for me if I get that book. It's the next day, I get the message from Joseph. It says meet me at The La Sierra nightclub down in Soho street at nine. A nightclub!? That's a weird place to do a heist meeting don't you think? So I go to this nightclub down in Soho street. I get to the front entrance but there's a bouncer, who doesn't look very pleasant to see me.

"I'm looking for Joseph Reed, ...he told me to meet him here"

He stares at me like I insulted him and then continues to ignore me like I wasn't there.

"If you can just let me in so I can find him-"

"I'll keep moving if I were you pal"

And as he responds, my guy Joseph comes out the entrance.

"It's alright Francis, he's a friend"

As I go past the bouncer now called Francis, he holds the door open for me and stares at me with quite an intimidating stare, so I go...

"Thank you, Francis"

And then quickly head in with Joseph following his lead as he takes me in to find the other 'heist crew' I'm supposed to meet

"Trust me, you don't wanna get on the bad side of that guy"

"Yeah, I figured that out... so we're friends now?"

"Yeah, man...hey! I look after friends, alright"

"...Okay"

We go past the middle stage of the club where everyone is dancing, karaoke, and vomiting on each other. He takes me upstairs, to what looks like a VIP lounge. I see two other people, a woman, and a guy. Joseph opens the door for me and indicates to go in by nodding his head. I go in and have these two strangers looking at me like they're analyzing me or something.

"Guys, this is Booker Witsmoore, our main man I've been talking about. Booker meet, Rachel..."

Rachel gets up from her seat to shake my hand as I proceed to do so.

"Hi, Booker nice to meet you"

"Nice to meet you too"

Joseph proceeds to explain who Rachel is and what is her role is in all this...

"Rachel here is Jerimiah Muritz's temp assistant for the week, unfortunately, Miss Eddison is not feeling too well..."

As he says that he gives Rachel a wink, as he had something to do with Miss Eddison not feeling too well.

"...And will be off for the week. So our lovely Rachel will give us access to Mister Muritz's office and the best part is Muritz himself is away on holiday"

Joseph continues to talk about the next person on the team.

"This is Barry"

Barry waves his hand and says

"What's up"

In a very relaxed manner and then drinks his beer.

"Hey"

Joseph continues to tell me about Barry as he walks behind him and places his hands on both of Barry's shoulders like he's about to give him a massage.

"Barry here is our main entrance security guard, he will let us pass and get us into the building ain't that right, Barry?

"That's right!"

Seems like a solid plan though, if you ask me. It seems that Joseph has been planning for some time. And so after he fills me in about these two, he walks over to me.

"And finally, you! my man Booker, you get the front row seat. You will act as the maintenance man. You will go in like normal, register your name in the reception, waiting for Rachel to pick you up, and take you to his office... and from there you will begin to crack open his safe with this..."

He walks over to the table and opens a duffle bag and brings out something that if you didn't know what it was your first guess will be a small-time machine, well that's what it looked like anyway.

"This my friend will open that safe without any scratch or trace, it's very simple to use, I'll teach you how to use it in a sec, but for now... what'd you say?"

Like I said, a solid plan. I can do it. I'm in.

"Sounds good to me"

Cut to the day of the heist, so the plan is that I get to Rogers Maintenance shop and pick up a van and my maintenance uniform, drive that van to Jerimiah Munitz's office building, get through security, get through the reception, get to the office and crack open the safe. Should be easy. I pick up the van, drive to the building and get to the security gate where I see someone other than Barry in the security cubicle.

"Name, please!?"

As I go to say my name, Barry comes into the security Cubicle.

"That's fine! I signed him in earlier let him through"

The gates open and I park up in the parking lot. I get out of the van and bring the duffle bag with me. I head inside and go to the receptionist.

"Hi, I'm here to fix the lights in Mister Munitz's office"

"You're name?"

"Micheal Neeson..."

"...Yes, wait one second, please. Mister Muritz's assistant will be here shortly to take you there.

"Thank you"

I have never been inside Muritz's building before and it's smaller than it seems on the internet. Rachel finally appears to take me to his office.

"Hi, I'm Rachel, I can take you to his office if you please follow me"

We go into the lift together. The lift opens, we head out, and there it is... Muritz's office. She unlocks the door and takes me in.

"You have fifteen minutes, I'll be waiting outside. Good luck."

And with that, she closes the door behind her. WOW... I giggle, I can't believe I'm actually in Jerimiah Muritz's office... okay no time to geek out now. Time to open the safe, there it is, pretty small safe to be honest. This should be easy. I place the duffle bag on Muritz's desk, unzip the bag and bring out the safe opener device. I place the safe opener device on the dial and let it run its course, the best thing about this tool is that it does everything automatically. I have about five minutes to kill until the safe cracks open. I sit in Munitz's chair. Man! isn't this great, I giggle like a child. This will be me soon. I'll have an office just like this. As I dream away, a clicking sound shoots off. The safe door is open! I did it... well the safe opener did it but I can get that book now. I get to the safe and remove the safe opener device, open the door, and there it is a small black book. I grab it and without wasting time I hide it in my back pocket. I pack away the safe opener device in the duffle bag, pick up the duffle bag and head out of the office.

"It's done"

"...Well okay... I'll show you out"

Rachel takes me downstairs and takes me back to the entrance of the building. I hurry back to my van and drive to the gate. For some reason, I feel more nervous now than I felt when I came. The security gate opens and I slowly drive past the security cubicle and as I do Barry gives me a wink while I drive past him. I did it! I got the book. It's a whole new life starting for me from today. My phone goes and It's an unknown number, I answer it and it's Joseph.

"You have the book?"

"It's sitting in my pocket nice and warm"

"My man! Nice job Booker. Okay cool, head to a hotel, book yourself something fancy. I'll set up a meeting tomorrow, and don't open the book yet Booker, we'll all review it tomorrow, you get me?

"Okay, man"

"My man!, I'll see you tomorrow"

I drop off the van and head to a five-star hotel, I do have 20 grand to spend remember. I get to my room and place the book on the table and take a seat. I know Joseph said to wait until we meet up tomorrow but the anticipation is killing me! I pick up the small black book and notice the brand Moleskine on the front cover. How cool is Munitz, storing his ideas in a Moleskine notebook. With the biggest deep breath, I open the notebook... and... It's empty, It's blank, there's nothing, literally nothing. IS THIS A JOKE. I turn every page in the notebook, flicking it, finding nothing. But oh wait... it says something on the first page... It says...

Store your ideas here...

The End