little black jackpot

John walks to his apartment around 5pm everyday. He places his briefcase behind the door and hangs his keys on the left hand side hook of the entrance. Along with his dog, Junie they are headed to the balcony to join his girlfriend Ann for a quick snack before dinner. However, on his way over, John finds Ann in the living room with a concerned look on her face and the telephone faced down on the coffee table next to her. John wondering what could’ve possibly happened, he rushes to console her, worried that she may have gotten some bad news over the phone. Ann quickly stands up and stops him from hugging her, she then explains to him that his sister, Nermacalled but she didn’t explain the details as to why she was calling. She said it was urgent and that John should call her back as soon as possible. John stares at Ann with a confused look on his face because he hasn’t spoken to any of his siblings or father since the passing of his grandfather especially after how things went when finding out that he had only inherited boxes filled with old books while his siblings received money and property. The eventful night ended with a heated conversation between John and his family about the choices he made in life, which resulted in John storming off and never seeing or speaking to his family again. The feud between John and Ann’s family goes twenty years back. John’s late grandpa, Robert and, Ann’s grandpa, Albert were business partners and really good friends at that, like many failed friendship, they’re business failed as well. Albert could never get over Robert leaving him in a fragile financial state. In addition to being at odds, they even went back and forth for years, threatening to end each other's careers.John’s family believe that Ann’s grandfather took it too far when he filed a lawsuit against their late grandfather Robert. John is really taken back by what his girlfriend is telling him. The telephone starts to ring and John and Ann are looking at each other, as John reaches out to answer the phone on the second ring. He answers and says “Hello, Nerma?” John answered with no hesitation, “yeah I'll be right there.”Ann asked John about what was going on. John responded by saying he had no idea and that Nerma said that it was important that he meet with her at his grandfather’s place right this moment. On his way out the door, Ann jumped in front of John, grabbed his head, looked into his eyes, and kissed him on the forehead, she then whispers into his ear “No secrets right?” “We are transparent about everything, right, John?”

John takes a good look at Ann and kisses her goodbye. He then walks out of the front door.

Once John got to his grandfather's place, he knocked on the door twice before impatiently letting himself in. He yells out for Nerma, assuming she didn’t hear a knock at the door. Nerma responds and says “I’m up here.” John goes up the stairs heading towards the attic, he figured this is where her voice was coming from. Not even at the tip of the first staircase, John starts coughing from all the dust that is on his trench coat. Nerma urges John to focus and pick a box to go through, she tells him that she’ll explain everything as they’re going through the boxes. John was looking at himself in a mirror, trying to pat off all of the dust on his jacket. Perfect, gelled down dark hair. Nerma, once again in an irritated tone, asks John to pay attention because they don’t have much time. She’s eager to find the map that her grandfather left behind for John. John was just shocked with Nerma’s relentless behaviour and was beginning to think she was going crazy. He kept his comments to himself, not wanting to upset Nerma. She throws an old box to John’s feet and tells him that the reason behind all of this is because she received a phone call from an unknown called, “well, who was it?” John asked. Nerma tells him that it was a man claiming to be a long time friend and lawyer of their grandfather. He said that his name was Bill, and that if I didn't believe him, she can confirm with our dad. He also mentioned that he had important information regarding Ann and her grandfather Albert. John frustrated and in disbelief with Nerma, he shouts at and says “I no longer will tolerate your hatred toward Ann.” Nerma calmly suggested he should calm down and to let her finish telling him what she was saying. John slowly takes a step back before taking a deep breath and leans towards the desk behind him. He then allows her to continue her story about the mysterious caller. As she resumes her conversation with this strange man, she mentions that John had more inheritance and that John would have to meet him by himself and that’s how grandpa Rob wanted it to be. John, who becomes speechless, starts to bite his nails. Nerma on the other side, overwhelmed and confused, still finds a way to reassure her brother by telling him that if he gets to the bottom of this and deals with this right away, she will put her pride aside and make things right with Ann. John smiles, but isn’t overjoyed thinking of all this is still so crazy. He begins to make an effort for this notorious map that supposedly has all the answers to John's questions. After searching for hours, Nerma and John feel hopeless. John pulls out his phone and notices that Ann called fourteen times and left five voicemails. He tells Nerma that she may be worried and must call her back. Nerma quickly stops him from making that call and lets him know that the unknown caller said not to trust a soul with the map. John is upset thinking this is another way for Nerma to ruin his relationship, he kicks open the boxes and by chance an old paper which was folded comes flying out. John beats Nerma to the paper, and there it was, the map that they’ve been looking for. Nermanimmediately tells John to follow the map and Thad she would come up with a story in his absence. She insisted not to worry about a thing and that she would catch up with him as soon as he got back. John still worries about Ann, gets into his car, heading North just like the map indicated. However, he’s having a hard time finding the exact location on the GPS. After rerouting a few times, he is finally heading in the right direction according to a local dog walker. John is now only an hour away from his destination, he’s still ignoring Ann’s calls and turns up the radio, hoping it will distract him from picking up the phone. Moments later he receives a text from Ann as to why he is heading North out of the town and she thought he was still at his grandfather's house. John is confused and lost as to how Ann knows his whereabouts. On the other hand, Ann is unbothered, what no one knows is that Ann is very territorial and has access to John’s emails, bank accounts and messages. John has no idea of any of Ann’s tricks. Although, he has no idea what Ann has been up to, what he should know is that Ann and her grandfather came up with a big plan to take over all the money John inherited from his grandfather. Albert was sure that John was going to inherit all of the money, after all, John was Robert's favourite grandchild. Robert would go on about how proud he was of John. He would talk about how courageous he was compared to his son. Albert was convinced that everything would fall into place after his passing. Ann worried about her boyfriend's whereabouts, and worried that she may have lost track of John. She calls her grandpa, Al to warn him that John might have got lost and that she needs his help to find her « wanderlust » of a boyfriend, with a petty smile on her face. She hangs up and throws herself on the couch. The local sheriffs get a call from an unknown person from an anonymous tipper about a man who’s armed and dangerous driving a Honda Civic heading North outside of town. Officers get called immediately to look for the suspect in question, the suspect fits John’s description to the tea. John finally gets to his destination and is greeted by the old man Nerma was telling him about, Bill. John looks around, with a nervous look on his face making sure there isn’t anyone around him. Bill urges him to hurry and continuously asks him if he told anyone about the map. John shouts out, “No!” Before Bill even gets a chance to explain to him what he had for him, they both hear loud sirens and see lights coming from the front porch. Bill instantly tells John to go out from the back and to take his keys and the black tool box. He tells John to get away as far as he can and that everything he needs to know is in that tool box.Without hesitation, he does as he is told. As he drives away, John pulls over and opens up the tool box to find a handwritten letter from his grandfather.

To read the letter and detect three cop cars behind him. Before John could even think about doing anything he found himself being detained in a holding sell. Following many hours of detainment two police officers approach John and let him know that they didn't find any weapons on him and that he would be released as soon as possible.One of the officers hand him over his tool box and keys to Bill’s truck and assured him that the paperwork shouldn’t take long and suggested he should use the cd player in his tool box while he waits to be released. John, annoyed and tired, puts his headphones in his ears, presses play. John instantly falls to the ground, screaming, ranging and in disbelief, kicks the tool box open and screams at it and notices a small black notebook. John picks up the note, flicks the elastic band off the side of the notebook and flips the first page and reads: I'm sorry it had to end this way, on the bright side is pay day! Time to collect what is owed to you.