Little Black Book

"Excuse me, Miss Grace?" I open my eyes to see the smiling face of an airline attendant.

"Can you please raise your seat, put your laptop away and prepare for landing?" She is still smiling, her blue eyes twinkle like glitter.

"Oh! Of course! I'm sorry, I must have dosed off." I say apologetically as I straighten my crooked glasses back on my nose and glance at the woman seated next to me.

"You must be tired." She says to me as I fumble with my laptop bag, its contents now spilled out over the floor between us.

"No. It's so odd, I wasn't tired at all. I was working on my reports and quite awake and aware. I don't know what happened?" I say, shaking my head.

I manage to stuff the contents in my bag. She hands me stray papers and pens. I pause and look up at her. "Why did you say that I must be tired?" I ask curiously.

"Because you were snoring." She chuckles.

"Oh God! How long was I out?" I'm sure that my face is a bright color of fire engine.

"Four hours." She shrugs her shoulders.

"Wow! Guess I was tired after all." I've managed to shove the laptop back in now. Everything is a mess! I zip up the bag, shove it under my seat and take a deep breath. The plane lands with a thud, a skid, a whistle and a whir.

"Welcome to San Francisco, Lacey." The woman next to me stands up quickly, and before I can say anything to her, she is gone.

Wait? How does she know my name? Maybe she saw something on my laptop? Maybe she saw my badge for the Quantum Physics Conference, where I'll be speaking this weekend. I gather my belongings, push my glasses up on the bridge of my nose, and exit the plane.

"Lacey Grace?" A tall, pale skinned man wearing black sunglasses approaches me. He has a small sign in his hand that he is obviously uncomfortable holding.

"Yes, that's me! Are you my driver?" I am looking him up and down. He doesn't look like a driver. He does however, look like he's prepared to walk into combat, or that he's a hired body guard. I'm positive he has some weapons tucked away in his many folds of belts, pockets, bags and boots.

"That I am. I'm Mr. Edens. It's nice to meet you. Do you have baggage?" He reaches for my laptop bag. "May I carry that for you?" He offers, smiling. His smile is toothy and bright. I instantly relax.

"Sure." I say, as I hand my bag over to him. I mean, who cares what he's dressed like? As long as he gets me where I need to go, I'm good.

We arrive at my hotel and Mr. Edens helps me with my bags.

"I'll be here at 8:00 A.M. Miss Grace." He smiles and waits as I grab a porter.

"Lacey." I say, as I'm walking into the hotel. I turn back and look at him. He is still waiting there, watching me.

I reach my room and give it a quick sweep before tipping the porter. I dive into the fluffy bed, take a drink of the brandy I've taken from the mini fridge, and drag my laptop bag to me.

"What a mess!" I say to myself out loud. Talking to oneself is a known side effect of lonely scientists.

I pull the contents out and spread them on the bed. "Wait! What's this?" I say, as I pick up a little black book. It is a small notebook, it pages are all blank, black paper. The only thing written in words is 'Moleskine' embossed in gold.

'Now where did this come from?' I say in my mind as I race through memories of the day. Maybe it belongs to the woman on the plane? I must have grabbed it on accident.

I reach for my brandy and knock it off the nightstand, its golden liquid spilling over the black pages of the little black book. I quickly grab a towel from the bathroom and start to dab at the pages. "Wait? What's this?" I say out loud as I'm gazing in awe at the black pages.

Where I had spilled the brandy, there were now words that appeared as if written in some magic white liquid.

"What is going on here?" I say, as I push my glasses up on my nose and gaze intensely at the book, my mind racing in my head. Spinning, curious, intrigued. I grab the remaining five bottles of liquor from the mini-fridge and soak the towel with their contents.

I start dabbing the pages, the smell of hard alcohol in the air reminding me of casinos, bars and my youth.

"Names and numbers!" I practically scream as if I've won Bingo.

There on the pages of this little black book were names and numbers! Phone numbers! Page after page. I soak every page until I reach the last page in the Moleskine book.

"It can't be?" I swallow hard, as I stare at the last name in the book.

There written in glowing white curves, are the words Lacey Grace, followed by my phone number.

I must be drunk! I must be overly exhausted. Maybe I'm coming down with something? I just need to sleep this off and tomorrow my head will be right. 'Lacey! You're loosing it!' I say in my mind, 'Go to sleep. No more Brandy!'

I tuck myself in the blankets, the little black book, the contents of my bag, and the empty bottles of liquor stay where they are.

There's a knock at my door. I sit up fast, my hands go to my head as if my hairs on fire. I fumble around the mess on the bed for my glasses and stumble to the door.

"Yes?" I say, almost in a whisper.

"Miss Grace? Is everything OK?" It is Mr. Edens, with a bit of worry in his voice and a very hard hand knocking on my door.

"Um. Yes. Give me a minute. I overslept." I mutter through the door, my heart racing now, as I remember the contents of the little black book.

I glance at my phone, I'm seriously late. My lecture starts in less than an hour. I take the quickest, coldest shower in human history, and shove the mess on the bed back into my laptop bag. I frantically look inside the book, the pages are black and empty.

"Lacey! Get it together!" I say as I breath a huge, heavy sigh of relief. I must have dreamed it. I fling open the door.

Mr. Edens is there. His eyebrows furrowed together.

"Everything alright Miss Grace?" He is peeking in the room now, I'm sure it smells like a bar in there.

"Yes, sorry to keep you waiting. My alarm didn't go off and I'm afraid I had too much brandy last night." I walk past him and push the button to the elevators. "Lacey." I say as we enter the elevator.

"Come again?" he says.

"Lacey. Please call me Lacey." I smile at him.

He smiles back. But does not say a word.

"Miss Grace?" A short balding Japanese man is walking quickly towards me with three women clicking in heels following closely behind. They are the hosts of the conference.

"Yes?" I stop and wait for them to approach.

"We didn't think you were making it!" He is out of breath. "We have some paperwork for you to sign. Thank you for your lecture on Quantum Field Entanglement. It was absolutely brilliant!" He is bowing to me out of respect, as is Japanese custom.

I bow back. "Thank you! Sorry I was late. I overslept." I click my pen and ready myself for the clipboards in the women's hands. I sign the papers and walk off.

"You are not staying for the rest of the conference?" He sounds disappointed. I guess he can tell I was headed for the exit.

"Oh, I will return shortly. I am not feeling well." I try to sound sincere, lying has never been my superpower.

"Wonderful! I mean wonderful you are coming back, that is. I hope you have a good rest." He bows again and walks off, his entourage of clipboard keepers behind him.

I walk quickly to the front of the building and search the street with my gaze. There he is! Mr. Edens, standing there tall and straight by the car. I can't see his eyes through his dark glasses, but I know he is watching me. He opens the door for me and as I get into the car, I whisper, "Take me somewhere private, off grid. We need to stop at a liquor store before we go." I can think of nothing else but the last name on that last page.

"Right away, Lacey." He is incredibly calm. I however, am shivering uncontrollably, as if I have been sitting in cold water for hours. Yet, there's a fire deep in my belly telling me my life will never be the same again!

"Aren't you going to ask me why?" I say to him.

"Why what?" He says back with no emotion.

"Why we are getting liquor and going off grid to the woods. What we are doing. What I am doing." I sputtered.

"Lacey, I don't think it's because you want to party with me in the forest." He looks at me in the rear view mirror, flashing me his full smile.

"Um, No. Oh my God! I wouldn't. I. Um. No." I stammered.

He laughs. "Lacey. It is no accident that I was assigned to be your driver." He is serious now.

"You're not really a driver, are you." I state. "Who are you?"

"I am an independent paladin, that freelances as hired security." He says cryptically.

"What does that even mean? What is going on here?" I am confused and scared now. "I am just a geeky scientist who writes papers on theories. I'm a nobody!"

"You're name is in the book, isn't it?" He has parked the car now in a grove of trees just out of town. Private. Deep in the forest with no one around.

"You know about the little black book?" I squeak out the words like I'm a child.

"Yes." He says.

"Yes? And?" I am angry now.

"And, you are now the keeper of the book." He takes off his sunglasses. His eyes are bright blue that shimmer like glitter.

"It wasn't the woman sitting next to me that gave me the little black book. It was the airline attendant. She has the same blue eyes and the same full toothy smile as you, Mr. Edens." I am starting to feel like I have stepped into a sci-fi movie.

"Yes, Lacey. It was her. Yes, she and I are relatives, if you will. And yes, you have stepped into a different reality. One that exists simultaneously with the world you are used to. One that proves your theories of Quantum Field Entanglement. One that is accessed by the coding placed in the gold letters 'Moleskine', on the Little Black Book." He pauses and is looking at me, my mouth open, my face flushed, my heart racing.

"Why is my name in the book?" I manage to say in a wispy breath.

"Because the book has called you." He says mysteriously.

"Why me?" I ask.

"That, my dear Miss Grace, is what we are going to find out." He hands me a fat white envelope.

"What is this?" I ask. Inside there is a stack of hundred dollar bills.

"It's twenty thousand dollars." He smiles big. " Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime?"

"No." I state, as I shake my head. I take his hand and we walk into the forest. Into the unknown.