Finding Texas

Cas was standing in the middle of the living room of her cabin. The cabin was on a small piece of land in Bragg Creek, Alberta. It was surrounded by trees and had a small brook that ran along the edge of the property. She could hear the crackle of the small fire that burned in the fire place behind her and smell the aroma from the pot of coffee that was brewing on her vintage stove in the kitchen. Cas looked up at the loft, she got excited about the novel that was laying on her desk up there, went to the kitchen, poured a cup of the fresh brewed coffee and headed for the stairs.

Just as Cas was about to make her way up the stairs she was jolted back to reality. She was not in a cabin at all, but smack dab in the middle of Park Place mall and to her horror she had just walked straight into a man and knocked his brief case out of his hands strewing his paper and notebooks about the floor. “Oh, my Goodness, I am so sorry.” Cas said mortified. She bent down to help pick up his things. “It’s quite all right, I should have been paying attention.” He replied. “I don’t even know if I was on this planet anymore. “Cas said feeling the burn of embarrassment warming her cheeks. “Neil.” the man said extending his hand. “Cassandra.” cas replied shaking the man's hand. They finished picking up Neil’s things and went their separate ways.

Cas tried to stay focused as she finished running her errand. She had only come to the mall to get the piano book her daughter needed for piano practice that was starting that night. She managed to stay focused for the rest of the time she was in the mall and the 25 min drive home. She lived in a small town outside of the city of Lethbridge, Alberta called Raymond. It was her day off and the piano book was the only errand she had for the day. She had planned to spend the rest of the day cleaning and getting dinner ready.

She was in the middle of cleaning the house when she started to drift into her daydream again. “Oh geeze, why am I so distracted today?” She said to the empty house. Cas decided that she was done with the house work and started a bath. She figured that if she just went to relax and let her self daydream, she could get it out of her system and focus on what needed to be done. It was her dream, the big dream, she wanted to be a writer, she wanted to live in that cabin with that stove and that loft. She had dreamt of this as long as she could remember, but had not had the courage to get her work published.

She headed to her room to grab a change of clothes and her notebook. Her notebook was her prized possession, it was a beautiful black moleskine notebook that her friend had bound in leather as a birthday gift three years earlier. Her notebook had all of her writing notes and a rough copy of Finding Texas, the romance novel that she written and was too scared to let anyone read.

When she pulled open her underwear drawer, she was surprised to see that it was not in there. She felt a tiny wave of panic as she looked in all of her other drawers, but it wasn’t in any of them. She headed down the stairs and into the kitchen, she checked her purse, but it wasn't there either. She ran through the house checking all of her usual places, but it wasn’t in any of them. How could she have misplaced her notebook? She always put it away or took it with her. She decided that she was overreacting and got into the bath, but it was no use, without her notebook she couldn’t fully relax. She finished the house work keeping her eyes open for her notebook.

A week had passed and she started to come to grips with the fact that she had lost her notebook and might never see it again. She was sitting at the table moping over a cup of tea when her husband came in from work. “Hey Cas, I think I know what happened to your notebook.” He said as he was taking off his coat in the back room. Cas jumped up out of her chair as he came into the kitchen. “Where is it?” she said lighting up a little. He handed her a newspaper that had an ad circled.

To the lady that bumped into me at Park Place. This

Is Neil, I have your notebook, if you would like it back

please give me a call so we can meet up (403) 555-9616.

Cas started to bounce a little. “I can’t believe he was nice enough to post an ad in the paper over a notebook.” She said lighting up even more.

She dialed the number feeling the relief of knowing that she was going to get her notebook back. “Hello?” she recognized Neil’s voice. “Hi Neil, this is Cassandra.” “Oh hi, I’m glad you saw my ad.” He replied. “Me too, thank-you for going to so much trouble to get it back to me. She said. “No problem at all, when did you want to meet up, I am free after 5pm tomorrow if that works.” He said. “That’s perfect actually, I can meet you after work at about 5:30pm.” She replied.” “Great, where would you like to meet?” he asked. “How about the Tim Horton’s on 43rd?” she replied. “Perfect, I will see you tomorrow at 5:30pm.” he said hanging up the phone.

Cas let her husband know that she was going to be late getting home the next day because she was meeting Neil at 5:30pm. The next day at work seemed to drag. When 5:15pm hit she was out the door. When she got the Tim Hortons, she could see Neil sitting at the long table near the back of the coffee shop with his brief case open and a bunch of papers spread out on the table. Cas ordered a coffee, then walked up to the table.

“Hi Neil.’ She said as she sat across from him. “Hi Cassandra, nice to see you again.” he replied not looking up from what he was writing. “I found your notebook in my briefcase after that day in the mall. ” “Oh my, it must have fallen out of my purse that day when I bumped into you.” she said feeling a hint of the embarrassment in her cheeks. “Thank you again for posting the ad.” Cas replied.

Neil slid her notebook across the table to her, but there was a piece of paper attached to it. As she grabbed the notebook, she noticed that it was a cheque. As she was handing it back to Neil she noticed that it was for $20,000 dollars. Neil did not take the cheque back. “This is yours.” she said waving it a bit. “Nope, that’s yours.” he replied. Cas sat there a lot confused and actually read the name on it. “Well, I should clarify, it’s yours if you want to sign these papers and become a professional writer.” Neil added. “What are you talking about?” Cas asked looking even more confused. “You’ll have to forgive me, when I found your notebook, I didn’t know It was yours and read it.” “My name is Neil Walters and I own Walters Publishing.” “I loved Finding Texas and I would like to publish it, that is an advance on the book, a second advance will be deposited into your account 2weeks from now and the rest will be deposited from the money that is generated on the sales of your book.” “That is, if you agree to the contract once you have read it.” Cas just sat there in shock for a minute, then nodded.

Everything seemed to slow to a crawl as she read through all of the paperwork and while her and Neil talked at length about the future. Cas drove home in a daze. Was this really happening, she kept thinking while glancing over at the cheque and contract laying on the passenger seat. When she pulled into the driveway, she just sat there for a minute still trying to wrap her head around what had just happened.

When she walked into the house her husband was waiting for her. “What took you so long?” he said a slight irritation in his voice. Cas didn’t say a word at first, she just handed him the cheque. “What is this for?” he said with a puzzled look on his face. “Their publishing Finding Texas.” she replied still looking a little stunned. “Who’s publishing Finding Texas?” he asked still staring at the cheque.

Cas went on to tell him all about Neil, how he was the owner of Walters publishing in Lethbridge, how he had read her notebook and how he had loved Finding Texas. She showed him the contract for her book release and after the initial shock of the situation subsided, they broke into celebration, called everyone they knew and planned the book release party.

It was at that book release party that it finally hit Cas and she started to cry. Her dream was coming true right before her eyes, she was going to get her cabin in the woods, with her vintage stove and her loft, Finding Texas was finally being published.