Lost & Found

“End of the line” she yelled down the 40-foot bus. As the passengers exited, she turned to ensure no one else remained on board. After the last rider exits, she turns off the lights and heads back to the bus division.

Upon arriving she pulls the parking brake and places the bus in neutral, removes her gloves, closes her eyes, and rubs her temples. The stress of the day has exhausted her energy and getting off at 1:30 in the morning didn’t make it any easier. She walks the bus checking to ensure no personal belongings remain. Under the seat near the rear door, she notices a little black book with an intriguing etched symbol. She collects it, grabs her bag, and run sheet and heads to her car.

Lori had never been one for small talk, she grabs her run sheet and bypasses her coworkers with feelings of frustration due to their incessant chatter and cackling laughter. Submitting her paperwork, she takes a deep breath and heads home. She pulls into the parking space, turns off the ignition and removes the key. Lori opens the back door as the cool winds of winter causes a shiver up her spine and immediately palms her face after realizing that she forgot to turn in the book. She grabs the book, her bag and starts walking to her apartment building. “This is Stevens 221846 calling to report an item left on bus number 7344” The clerk notates Lori’s information regarding the item as Lori opens the book “the pages are blank nothing inside” she expresses. “Thanks Stevens’” the clerk responds. Lori hangs up and looks at the symbol etched into the well-crafted Italian leather with rounded corners, rubbing her finger across its lines she becomes curious about the symbol.

As Lori unlocks the apartment door her daughter greets her and hands her a cup of iced water, “love you mom, goodnight” “Thank you baby, goodnight and thank-you for waiting up” her daughter smiles as she walks down the hall to her bedroom, the scent of essential oils from her daughter’s diffuser fills the air. She drops everything on the kitchen counter and sits at her computer desk thinking about her spiritual journey and life’s purpose. As she sips her iced water, her mind wonders about the people that ride her bus every day and how she is fortunate to have a job with today’s economy. She decides she will light a candle and ask the universe to provide the necessities for all the people she meets. She takes off her boots and uniform, hops in the shower and allows the hot water to rejuvenate her senses.

As her wet footprints saturate the carpet, she grabs a candle and lights it, setting it in the candle holder on the counter, she throws on shorts and a tank top and heads back to the kitchen to refill her water. As she turns to pour the refreshing liquid into her cup, she notices a glow emanating from one of the lines in the symbol on the cover of the book. Lori immediately picks up the book and is awed at what she is witnessing. She takes the book back to her computer desk and begins searching the Encyclopedia of secret signs and symbols for where the symbol originated. To no avail there was no information on the symbol in the 491page pdf. She enters a description of the symbol into google, eyes widened and hoping for a glimpse into what this symbol was while waiting for the results to load. Her heart dropped as the Error loading page appeared, she let out an annoyed huff of air as she attempted to refresh the page. Then it hit her, they finally turned off the Wi-Fi. Lori was a month behind on rent and the cable bill had not been paid either.

She takes the book back to the counter and she sees the glow once again illuminate. As she reaches to bring the candle closer, she knocks over her cup of water. Lori darts to the closet to grab a towel before the water can run down the counter onto the floor, when she returned, she sees a light blue hue emanating from the opposite side of the amber colored glow. She could not believe what she was seeing, and it dawned on her that the symbol on the book had a direct correlation to the four elements. She began blowing a smooth steady flow of air from her pursed lips. Lori begins smiling and laughing with excitement as the pure white glow emanated from the symbol. She runs to the hall closet to grab her gardening sheers and jets out of the apartment door. Lori falls to her knees and begins stabbing the cold hardened ground, each time with more force and more excitement. Lori scoops up what little dirt could be gathered. Without a second thought she runs back upstairs and throws the dirt on the book. Each section of the symbol illuminated and the entre symbol turned dark green and just like that the emanated sections disappeared. She attempted to bring the candle closer and blowing on the book once more, but nothing happened. Lori grabbed her ice water feeling embarrassed for having such child like thoughts of wonder about the book and decided that it was probably just a form a tech savvy design to make people purchase it, she figured this is the reason the other person left it so carelessly.

Lori grabs the book her eyes heavy from the 8-hour shift and immature excursion with the book. She begins writing “I wish my financial problems would disappear to make life a little easier right now because I am struggling but I am thankful for the many things I do have, a good job, a loving daughter, roof over my head and food in my stomach.”. She tosses the book back on the counter and heads to bed. She jumps up out of her sleep and answers her phone “Stevens we need you to come in early to cover a route” the clerk insistently conveys. “I can be there in thirty minutes”. “Don’t forget to bring in the book someone called looking for it” Lori’s eyes widened, remembering that she had written in the book. “No problem” she says and hangs up the phone. She gets dressed, grabs her work bag, the book and a tea from the fridge and gets in her car. She opens the book to rip out the page but to her surprise there was nothing there. With a puzzled look on her face, she laughs “I’m hallucinating, I need more rest”. She speaks.

As Lori heads down the highway, she notices she needs gas, she decides to take the exit and go to the gas station. “Twenty on pump number four” she states through the thick clear plastic window. Can you give me two number ten scratch tickets? She makes her payment for the gas and scratch tickets and goes back to her car, She throws the tickets in the passenger seat and inserts the nozzle, as the gas flows through the frayed rubber tube she sits in her car and grabs a quarter from the change dish. Lori begins scraping the thin material from the cards as it falls over her uniform, she sees a four-leaf clover and realizes she won five thousand dollars. She looks around to ensure no one can see her excitement and she continues to scratch, another four-leaf clover, and another and another. She immediately grabs her cell phone to call her daughter. “Baby I just won twenty thousand dollars on a scratch ticket, oh my goodness. I cannot believe it”. Her daughter screams with excitement “Are you serious”, “Yes I need to go though I have to hurry to work but we will go in the morning to collect our winnings. We can finally pay the back rent.” “Okay Mom, Love You see you tonight” her daughter hangs up the phone.

As Lori exits the car to remove the gas nozzle she is approached by an older distinguished looking gentleman. “Hello, how’s it going” he humbly says, “Things are going really well” she responds. “Oh wonderful, Received some good news lately?” Lori enthusiastically responds, “Actually, I have, I won a little money on a scratch ticket”. The gentleman nods his head with an accomplished smirk and states “That’s great news, with today’s economy we need all the help we can get am I right?” Smiling Lori responds, “You sure are!” “Well, you enjoy your day and make great use of your winnings” as he walks off. Thank you and you as well”. Lori arrives to work, drops off the book and grabs her run sheet.

After another long day of picking up and dropping off passengers she is yet again exhausted but in great spirits due to her big win. As she is heading into the bus division, she notices the older gentleman from the gas station, with a puzzled look on her face she starts to speak to him but is distracted by her annoying co-workers’ laughter, she gives an irritated glance and returns her gaze to the gentleman but he is nowhere in sight. Lori shrugs her shoulders and goes to drop off her paperwork to the clerk. “Has anyone picked up that book? if not I want to keep it after the thirty days”. “An older gentleman just picked it up actually” the clerk responded. Lori immediately runs out the door and to the corner where she saw the gentleman standing, looking in every direction. As she stands there a bus rolls by and the gentleman is waving at her from the window, he smiles and in his other arm she notices the little black book. Lori begins running as quickly as she can to get to the bus, cars zooming past her, the thick black smoke from the busses exhaust filled the air. As Lori slowed down, she begins frantically waving her arm to remove the smoke from the air in front of her face, the bus was gone and thus the gentleman and the little black book.

As Lori submits the paperwork for her winnings her mind is plagued by yesterday’s events. Who was he? Why did he choose me? What was the true meaning of the symbol? Will I ever see him again? Lori felt thankful after the beautiful experience, a sense of peace, wonder and imagination fell upon her.

Bundled in the thickest coat she could find as night fell, she thought to herself things are finally looking up, her rent paid a month in advance, cable and electric bill paid. Her daughter adoringly looks at her mother as they handed out care packages and food to some of the homeless in the city. She decided she would start a business with the funds remaining that catered to the low income in her community. She will never forget her experience and continues her search for the symbol and its origins.