The Book That Saved Our Lives

Friday morning was beautiful. The sun was bright and warm coming through the windows. We saw a heavy coat of fresh white snow that had laid the night before. After having our morning coffee, we decided to wake the kids to go play in the snow.

What should have been a beautiful day, quickly turned terrifyingby night fall. As the hours passed the temperatures started to drop drastically. By five o’clock at night the temperature had dropped to fifteen degrees from thethirty-five degrees earlier that morning.

The storm had brought freezing rain and more snow throughout the next five hours causing major power outages throughout the town. It quickly began getting cold in our homes and dry wood becoming difficult to locate. I had to get us firewood if I was going to keep my family warm.

I couldn’t drive due to the storms ice and snow which have made the roads extremely slippery and dangerous to drive on. I decided to suit up in my snow suit and gave my wife a kiss as I walked out of the door. I walked three blocks to the nearest farm to see if they had any wood that I could possibly buy from them.

As I was walking to the farm in the blistering cold, the icy rain was hitting my face and the snow was heavily blurring my vision. I was cold and angry, so I kicked with my boot what I thought was a huge dirty ball of snow on the side of the road. That ball of snow ended up having a little black book in it.

I assumed this must be important to someone, so I put the book in my pocket and treaded along towards the neighbor’s farm.When I got to the barn the farmer, who he was low on wood himself, helped me load up the firewood on his four-wheeler’s trailer and gave me a ride back to my house. I went to offer the farmer money and he wouldn’t take it.

The farmer told me to just pay it forward, we all need help during a time like this. I gave him a firm handshake and said thank you for helping my family and I will pay it forward indeed. I then unloaded the firewood and brought some in to start a fire. My family hung up blankets to close in the living room for us to stay warm.We lit candles for light, and we prayed for the power to come back on, and for all to be safe through this horrific storm.

After the kids fell asleep, I checked on my snow clothes to see if they had dried and the little black book that I had found out in the storm fell out of the pocket. I had forgotten all about the little black book by that point, but I decided to look in it to see exactly what it was.I opened it up and there was about 30 names and addresses. I thought this must be someone address book.

I looked in the back and there were five numbers 16,24,8,9,12 wrote in what looked like a black magic marker and then a sixth number, 4, written in red magic marker. I thought to myself these must be someone’s lucky numbers. I then realized it was three o’clock Saturday morning. I thought to myself what if I played the (Powerball) lottery and used these numbers?

What if I actually won? What would I do with the winnings? I figured it is worth a shot. I got on my cell phone and with what battery life I had left, I played the Powerball with all six numbers in the order that they were written. The next day my family and I woke up to a cold room, I put more wood on the fire and went into the kitchen to get us some dry cereal and granola bars to eat for breakfast.

The kids stayed covered up until they could warm up from the fire. I was wondering what was taking so long and why hasn’t the power come back on yet? How many people are freezing, that don’t have fireplaces? I needed to help. All I could hear is the farmers voice in my head saying, “just pay it forward.” I decided to suit up and walk downtown to buy a few groceries.

Little did I know the stores were all closed. People were walking to each other’s homes to ask for food, blankets and anything that they could safely burn to keep them warm. People in town were melting snow on their grills just to have water to drink. This wasn’t a normal outage or snowstorm; this is an actual emergency.

I rushed back home and retrieved all that I could for my family to be able to eat and things to stay warm. I found a powerpack in the bed side drawer in our bedroom and immediately plugged my phone in to top off my charge in case of any emergencies. It was getting dark and colder outside. I prayed that night before bed that this horrible storm would end soon. I was hoping we would have power by morning.

It’s now Sunday morning and we still have no power; I am running out of things to burn and my kids are complaining that they are cold. I am feeling hopeless as if it was my fault that I couldn’t keep my family comfortable during this. I was about to give up, when a knock at the door had me snap out of my negative thoughts.

I answered the door to an army official to give us food, wood,blankets and water. The private told us that the power will be on before that evening and to stay put and stay warm. He even reassured my wife as well that we would be okay. I told the man thank you and asked if there was anything that I could do. He reiterated what he said before, just stay comfy inside. I thanked the army official again before he left to check on our neighbors.

As we looked to see what we could eat for breakfast, I quickly remembered I had played the lottery Saturday and I never checked my numbers. I knew they weren’t my numbers personally, but someone owned that little black book and that was their lucky numbers. I had to know if I won. I had to know if my family’s life would change for the better.

I turned on my phone, opened the lottery app and looked up Saturday’s numbers. My eyes couldn’t believe what they were seeing. I scanned the numbers one by one, and to my amazement, they all were matching up correctly: 16, 24,8, 9, 12.... My eyes started to fill up with the happiest and wettest tears ever in my life.

I was excited but scared to look but I knew that if I had one more number right, I could not only help my family but, I could pay it forward to our hometown. My heart was racing, my hands were shaking, I could barely see clearly due to my eyes being clouded by tears. I glanced over the 6th number and by my surprise it matched...number 4.

I jumped up out of my chair and yelled as loud as I could, “holy cow baby we are rich.” My wife came storming in the bedroom from the blanket covered living room asking, what in the world are you yelling about? You’re scaring the kids. I asked her to sit down, that I had something to tell her. I grabbed her soft cold hands and told her that we won the lottery and it’s enough to help our family and our hometown.

She began to cry and buried her head into her hands out of true amazement and happiness. At that moment almost like a miracle the power was back on and we could hear snowplows on the road. It was like music to our ears. I checked my account to see if we had enough money for some groceries and to my surprise, my account already had a deposit of my winnings.

I told my wife about the deposit and she questioned, “how can that be?” I said it must have been from when I opened the account two years ago. I forgot I had opened up an account and set up direct deposit. That day we went downtown to buy everyone in town groceries’ and we went door to door to make sure those who couldn’t get out had food and water. We even went to the local utility company and paid up everyone’s utility bills for a year.

We were able to load up my truck and trailer with wood, enough to supply a family for a year maybe two. We drove to the farmers house that helped my family out with food to keep us warm when we didn’t have any. This was our way to pay him back for his generosity in our time of need.

We got to the door and we asked if he was busy, we explained that we had some wood to drop off for him and we needed to know where to put it. The farmer asked us how we were able to get so much wood and how we were able to pay his utilities up for a year? We asked the farmer how he knew about that so quickly?

He said we got a call that a generous man that just won the lottery helped the whole town out with their utilities for a year. The farmer said, news travels fast in this small town. I explained to the farmer of how I came across the little black book with all the names and numbers in it and how written on the back page was six numbers and so I decided to play them and won.

I said to the farmer your voice played in my head when you said to me, just pay it forward. I am doing just that! The farmer had a strange look on his face and asked me if I had the little black book with me? I said, “Yes, why?” He said, “Can I see it?” I reached in my pocket and handed him the book. The farmers eyes filled with tears and he suddenly sat down.

I asked if he was okay and if everything was alright? The farmer looked at me smiling ear to ear. I said, “What’s going on? Why such a big smile?” The famer said, “This is my little black book.” I said, “Oh that’s unbelievable!”

The farmer then told me the initials of the front of the book are his initials, AJF. I then announced, “I never did catch your name.” The farmer said, “My name is Adam John Fagnano, the same initials from that little book are the ones up on the front gate of my farm.” I told him I am so sorry those were your numbers and AJ said but the ticket was bought with your money.

The names and numbers in the book were people that I needed to pay it forward too. You did that by buying me wood, paying for everyone’s utilities for a year and suppling food and water to everyone in town. You did what I couldn’t have done without you buying that ticket. I am forever thankful.

We parted our ways but, not before I gave him a check for an amount that would take care of his family for years to come. I told AJ thank you, his little black book saved our lives. We both smiled and went on our way to live happy healthy lives for many years to come.