Contested

She clicked the send button. Off it went. Proofread by three Objectivist philosophers, and edited by a former employee of the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), Gianna Aria’s submission for the Atlas Shrugged essay contest with a grand prize of twenty-thousand dollars, was on its way through the digital ether to be judged. She immediately considered her student loans and other debts, and hoped the path to financial freedom began on the pages of her essay.

A student of New Sweden University in Wilmington, Delaware, Gianna was on her way to earning magna cum laude honors, and looking forward to pursuing a career as an entrepreneur. Winning this essay contest would open the door to possibility now halfway shut by debt.

“Hey, G, did you finish that essay?” Gianna looked up to see her friend Persephone standing in front of her—brown eyes wide, and freckles along her cheekbones in unison with her smile. Her anticipatory joy was hard to miss; she knew it was a rhetorical question.

“I just sent it.”

“Cool. You know you’re gonna win.”

“Hope for the best, but expect nothing.”

“Girl...you’ve just entered a contest to see who can best express their commitment to rational self-interest. Sketch it into that little black book of yours. It’s as good as won!”

She searched for her beloved, baby black book. “You gotta help me, P!” Gianna said, eyes wild, blood coursing through her veins so fast, she was distracted by the sound of her own heartbeat, which to her seemed deafening.

Sensing her friend’s panic, Persephone reassured her. “It’s okay, Gigi, we’ll find it,” she said.

“There are only so many places it could be! I was just here at the library,” Gianna said, gathering up her belongings, and preparing to search the library beyond the desk.

Just then, a librarian walked over and put her finger sternly to her lips and said, “Shhhhhhh!”

“Yes, ma’am,” the two friends responded in unison.

They gave their immediate surroundings a last once-over, then headed to the help desk.

“Do you have a lost and found?” Gianna said, attempting a whisper that came out louder than she’d intended because of the urgency in her tone. She was trying to calm herself, but it wasn’t working.

The clerk, a woman who seemed to be in her late-thirties, sucked her teeth in response. “I can check. What have you lost?”

“A small, black notebook with my name on it: Gianna Aria.”

“Wait a moment please. I’ll be right back,” the clerk replied.

Persephone stood by her friend like a valiant knight, defending her champion. What felt like millennia, but were merely moments later, the clerk returned with a few items in her plastic bin. Gianna felt a sudden burst of hope....

“This was all I could find.” A few haurbrushes, a green notebook, some pens, and pencils lay in a tray. “I didn’t see your name or anything that looked like what you described.”

Gianna stifled a shriek. By this time, she was situationally aware enough to reign in her emotions to respond at the appropriate volume.

“Thank you for trying,” she said.

“Sorry we couldn’t do more for you,” the clerk replied.

“It’s okay. Thanks, again.”

But it wasn’t okay. Gianna needed that notebook.

“Where could it be? I mean, where could I have left it?” She asked her friend.

Persephone tried again to calm her, but Gianna continued....

“I mean I didn’t take it anywhere, but—labs! It’s got to be in my lab class!”

Gianna and Persephone ran across the campus with the wind at their backs.

The door was locked. Gianna’s face looked like cracked porcelain. Persephone comforted her.

“It’s alright, G. we’ll be able to come back in the morning.” She held the book in her hand and slipped it into her own bag. She zipped it up slowly. Gianna, out of the corner of her eye, witnessed all of this.

“There’s one place we haven’t checked. Your bag.”

Persephone looked at her incredulously.

“My bag? Why would it be in my bag?”

Gianna reached over and unzipped Persephone’s backpack. She pulled out the small black book.

“What the hell, P? No friends? Nothing?”

“I just needed a quick glance at your notes so I could get ahead in engineering.”

“You couldn’t have just asked?”

“I didn’t want to upset you.”

“Well, you did a hell of a job of not upsetting me, Persephone! We’re friends no more. This is the end of the line for the two of us and I will be dismissing you from all my social platforms online.”

Gianna took back her precious property, and walked away.

Months later, ARI reported the winners. Gianna was at home, waiting.

“You’ve got it, Gi-Gi,” her Grandmother Alena said. She, her mother, father, and cousins were all gathered around the phone, waiting with her.

They were together when one of the staff members at ARI announced Gianna Aria as the winner of the twenty-thousand dollars. The room rejoiced.

Gianna’s father Martín was the first to speak after the shrieks of joy and congratulations began to die down. “I know just where it will go,” he said.“You can bail your friend out of prison!”

“She’s not my friend anymore, Dad. She also deserves to be where she is. This may be a windfall for me, but I’m using it to bail myself out of debt, so I can start my life unburdened. I have earned this!”

“I know Gi-Gi, just a bit of dark humor is all. You’re right, you did earn this. The money is yours. Do with it what you wish.”

“I will.”