My Little Black Book

After her mother passed away, Nora was left with the daunting task of cleaning out her mother’s house, a house her mom had lived in for well over fifty years. It was a massive old English colonial complete with a huge attic filled with nooks and crannies and lots of hiding spots.

Not quite knowing where to start, she decided to begin at the top and work her way down to the basement. She climbed up the creaking wooden stairs. When she got to the last step, she stopped dead in her tracks. The room was filled with boxes after boxes but what caught her eye was an old dilapidated chest sitting all by itself. It reminded her of the kind of treasure chest a pirate would bury on a deserted island.

She anxiously approached it, and without hesitation, slowly lifted the lid. The chest was empty, except for a little black book, just lying there all by itself. It was obviously really old. Nora carefully picked it up and sat down on a nearby box to examine it more closely.

Imagine her surprise when she found an old love letter inside, a letter from her dad to her mom when he was stationed overseas in 1942. Her parents had divorced when she was ten and she had never known this side of them.

Both were gone now. Yet here was this beautiful letter from a time when her parents were very much in love. And on top of that, he was telling her mom that he had hid $20,000.00 somewhere in the house for safe keeping while he was away in the service.

Twenty thousand dollars? Hidden somewhere in this very house? Nora lowered the book and slowly looked around. Was the money still here? Did her mom ever find it? If she had, surely she would have told Nora about it. She somehow knew her mom had NOT found it. It was time for a treasure hunt!

She began by opening and searching through every ragged cardboard box strewed about. There were so many. After several hours she was done but none the richer for it. It was getting late and she was tired. She decided to start again the next day. As exhausted as she was, sleep did not come easy that night. Nora was much too excited thinking about finding $20,000. Times had been hard of lately and she sure could use the money. She eventually drifted off to sleep.

When morning arrived, she jumped out of bed and eagerly headed back over to her mom’s house. She searched all of the bedrooms, checking each and every closet. Nothing. She then explored the living room, dining room and kitchen. Again, nothing. Her heart sank. Was she just on some silly and futile scavenger hunt?

Now all that was left was the basement, a creepy dank concrete hole in the ground. Nora never did like it. It always reminded her of a dungeon when she was a kid. She carefully walked down the old wobbly wooden stairs. “Great” she thought to herself, “More junk. Why not?” A rusted ironing board, an old Frigidaire refrigerator from the 1950’s and of course, more boxes. She sat down on the steps and sadly glanced around at the depressing landscape. The floor was cracked and the old wooden rafters hung down from the ceiling all splintered and jagged.

For some reason, perhaps to comfort herself, she closed her eyes and began to reminisce about her dad and how close they had been. How he would pick her up religiously every Sunday - each week a new adventure. Movies, plays, road trips and memories. So many good memories. She really missed him. This saddened her all the more.

Through the tears that had now welled up in Nora’s eyes, they were suddenly drawn up to one of the nearby beams. She got up to get a better look. There, written in faded chalk were two words…just two simple words. “All’s here” followed by an arrow pointing upwards.

Nora’s heart began to race. What was “ALL”??? Could it be what she hoped it would be? She dashed up the stairs and hurriedly pulled back the carpeting in that area of the living-room. She carefully studied the time-worn oak floor. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. The floorboards were untouched and all in order. There was nothing there.

Now what? Becoming increasingly disheartened, Nora sat down on the floor where the arrow had pointed up to and pulled out the little black book she had tucked away in her pocket. “Oh dad”, she lamented, “Where on God’s green earth did you hide the money?”

Worn out and out of options, she once again began to finger through the pages of that little black book. It was then that she noticed a small slit on the inside of the back cover. She hadn’t noticed it until now. She slowly began to peel back the old yellow paper and low and behold, there it was! A $20,000.00 WWII war bond! Nora was stunned! She immediately jumped to her feet and began dancing wildly like a gypsy all around the room. When she finally ran out of steam, she collapsed exhausted back down on the floor.

She eagerly picked up the war bond once again and studied it more closely. In the dead silence she blurted out, “Are you kidding me? Are you honestly kidding me? EXPIRED! It’s expired?” She sat there for a moment in utter disbelief. But instead of crying, Nora found herself looking up to the heavens and letting out an enormous laugh. Her dad always did have a really warped sense of humor and she knew he was looking down on her with a huge grin on his face. This was right up his alley.

Nora closed her eyes once more and smiled. She smiled because despite everything and still being poor, she had learned a very invaluable lesson that day. Yes, Nora realized that even though she wasn’t $20,000.00 richer, the wonderful memories she had of her dad and that beautiful old faded love letter were indeed beyond priceless.