The mysterious black book

The day is sad and dreary, he died in a car accident celebrating his 26th birthday. The family is having trouble gathering up the pieces. I told them I would be happy to help.

I get the keys to the house and I start downstairs first. Gathing up all the belongings and putting them into boxes. I put the dishes into a box and all the utensils in the kitchen in the same box. This room is the easiest to pack into boxes and clean up.

I then, move to the livingroom, I begin scanning the room to see what needs to be done. It isn't until now that I figure out how hard this must be for the family. Everywhere you look are pictures of him and his family. There is one from the time they played at the beach. There is one of him holding up a sizeble fish. This one though that I am staring at is the worst it looks pretty recent. He is holding an infant. I am not sure if it is his child. If it is his child that is horrible. Another child growing up without a father. There are even pictures of him with a yellow vest and white hardhat on. In one of the pictures he is up on a ladder and working on electric lines. Slowly with the greatest of care I begin to pack the pictures one by one trying not to break out into tears at the life lost way to young.

I finish the living room and keep moving to the next room it is the dining room. I think the myself oh good another easier room to handle. Not much here. There are a few dishes in a china cabnet and a table and chairs. A few fish pictures on the wall. A couple of wooded scenes as well. Easy enough to pack up and keep moving.

Next room on the list is the bathroom. I pack up the towels and put them in a box with the wash rags. Take all the stuff out of the medicine cabnet. There is one picture in here it is a picture a nice fish. I load it into the box. Take the shower curtain down. It has more fish on it. I beginning to believe this young man loved to fish.

Now, I make it to the last room. This one is his bedroom. It is a bit odd though he has a desk and filling cabnets in his room. I decide to start with the easier things I strip the bed down and begin to pack what is there. Then, I move to his dresser packing everything into box as well. The process is slow but all at the same time feels like it is moving quick. Now, I begin to pack everything up in the filling cabnet. Folder of bills, folder with bank information, and folder of pictures. The young man seemed to love pictures. There is all kinds of pictures here. Next, I take his deploma off the wall and put in into the box.

Finally, I have made it to the last thing to empty, the desk. So, I start down the sides. Drawer one, empty. Ok, so I move onto the next one, empty. Now, I am starting to get confused, so I begin quickly opening drawers. All empty. I am on the last drawer the one in the middle on the top. I opening it expecting it to be empty, it wasn't.

Inside I find this random small black notebook. Ok, I know I shouldn't but curiocity has the best of me. Why have an entire desk and only have a small black notebook? So, I open the notebook and begin to go through it. Page one says savings. Hmmm, that is interesting so I turned the page. Next, page had a $20 bill taped to it. That is really odd. I turn the page again, it had a $50 taped to it. So, I begin flipping throught the pages they are all full except for the last page with money taped to it. I am so excited at this point to be able to offer this book to the family to help ease some of the burden of his funeral costs and arrangements. So, at this point I am counting all the money in his book of savings, there is $20,000 in this little black book of savings. I finish up the last of the packing but I keep the book out and I meet up with the family where I present to them what I found and they all break down into tears. I feel good to have helped someone and watched them get a greater help from it.