Mysterious Blessings

Under pressure, Sam began drinking again after five years of sobriety. He had hopped from bar to bar over the past three months to drown his sorrows after he and his wife, Stacy, lost their jobs due to COVID-19. The mortgage and other bills kept piling up, and the unemployment checks were meager and sporadic. The financial strain had caused major tension between Sam and Stacy, and she threatened him with divorce once or twice although she hadn’t gone through with filing the papers.

On today’s travel agenda was Frank’s, a hole in the wall bar where many of the town’s outcasts congregated. He had been there a few times before, but it had been years. Upon arrival, Sam pulled up a stool at the bar. To his surprise, he recognized the bartender as the same one from five years ago, Rick.

“Well, well, well…look who it is! If it isn’t Rick. How have you been, old buddy?” asked Sam.

“Damn, how long has it been, four or five years? Ah, you know how it goes. Another day, another dollar. Unfortunately, however, the dollars have been hard to come by the past few months. We just opened back up not too long ago, and it’s been slow going so far. I can’t wait until things get back to normal, whenever that may be,” Rick grumbled with a shrug. “So, what’ll it be?”

“The same thing I always ordered before, a well bourbon, please.” As Rick poured Sam’s drink and sat it down in front of him, a glowing woman aged about 35 with long blonde hair and striking green eyes walked up and sat down next to Sam. Sam was a somewhat happily married man, and he would never consider the idea of stepping out on his wife, but something compelled him to strike up a conversation with the mysterious stranger after a couple of minutes.

After she ordered a hot tea, Sam noticed the woman had a little black notebook and was jotting down notes inside of it. He couldn’t help but be intrigued. “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but observe you seem to be writing down a lot of stuff in your notebook. Are you a people watcher, too? Oh, my name’s Sam by the way.”

“Hello, nice to meet you. My name is Abigail, and yes, I love people watching. I’ve been coming to this bar weekly for the past three or so years. I can’t help myself, and bars are one of the best places to see people as their most brutally honest selves. I write down notes about each of them in my little notebook to think of ideas for stories.”

“That sounds like it could be fun. I bet you hear some real gold from some of those folks. What sorts of things do you write about them?” asked Sam.

“Oh, a little of everything, really. I sometimes jot down notes about their physical features or funny stories they tell, but most often, I write down their sorrows. As you know, so many people who frequent bars are terribly depressed and just looking for some form of escape. It’s quite tragic, but I have a compulsion to do it because I’ve heard so many interesting things over the years. It’s no surprise I’ve filled up dozens of notebooks with notes, and each one of them has been special in their own way.”

“Wow, that’s so intriguing. I enjoy people watching as much as the next person, but I can’t imagine filling up dozens of notebooks mostly about people’s sad stories. I think it would be enough to throw me into a deep depression,” said Sam.

“Oh, you mean a deeper depression. I don’t mean to be blunt, but I could tell as soon as I walked through the door that you’re dealing with some issues of your own. Feel free to tell me about them. I promise I won’t write down any notes about you in my notebook. It’ll be strictly off the record, so to speak,” said Abigail with a sly yet sympathetic grin.

“Thank you for the offer, but I think my situation is fairly standard for the time we find ourselves in. Basically, my wife and I lost our jobs, and now we’re struggling to get by, which also isn’t helping our marriage. I love that woman more than anything, but it just seems like all the stress makes us get on each other’s nerves over the smallest things. I hate for things to be that way, but I don’t know how to go about solving the problem until one or both of us gets back to work.”

“I’m so sorry to hear it. That’s awful, but I’m sure things will turn around for you and your wife soon.”

“Thank you. I sure hope you’re right about that. I hate to break up such an interesting conversation, but beer runs right through me. I’m gonna have to make a trip to the restroom if you’ll excuse me,” said Sam.

“No worries. Go right ahead, and Sam, don’t beat yourself up too much. I can tell you’re a genuine soul,” she said as she started jotting down notes about other people in the bar.

Upon returning from the restroom, Sam realized Abigail was gone. He wondered if maybe she had also gone to the restroom because she hadn’t been there that long. He sat back down and waited a few minutes before calling Rick over.

“Hey, Rick. Did you happen to see where Abigail went?”

“Who?” asked Rick.

“You know, Abigail. She was the lady sitting next to me a few minutes ago. She said she’s been a frequent customer here for three years.”

“I’ve never seen that woman before in my life, but she sure did leave in a hurry,” said Rick.

“Are you sure?”

“I never forget a face, brother, especially not one as pretty as hers. She’s never been in here before.”

“That’s so weird. I don’t know why she’d lie to me like that. She seemed like such an honest person.”

With that, Sam glanced over and saw the little black notebook sitting on the barstool where Abigail had been sitting. “Oh, no,” Sam said. “She forgot her notebook. I have to run out and see if I can find her.”

After frantically looking for her in the parking lot for a few minutes, Sam shook his head in defeat and walked back inside the bar.

“She’s gone, and she forgot her notebook,” said Sam. “That’s so odd because I was under the impression she was going to stay and chat for a while longer,” he said.

“I don’t know what to tell you, buddy. I guess she’ll come back for her notebook if she misses it. Ready for another drink?” asked Rick.

“Sure. Same thing as usual.”

As he started sipping on his next bourbon, his curiosity got the best of him, and he got the idea to open the notebook to read some of the stories Abigail had referred to earlier. As expected, the pages were filled to the brim with writing. To his amazement, however, there were four $100 bills folded very tightly between the two pages. It was strange because when the notebook was closed, there was no way to tell there was money inside.

Sam turned the page, and sure enough, there were four more $100 bills. “How can this be?” he wondered. He turned the page again and there were another four $100 bills. By this point, Sam was almost in shock. He turned through all the pages rapidly, and there was $400 between each of them. In total, there was $20,000 hidden somehow in the notebook. There was no way to explain how that much money could be hidden in the notebook without it being visible.

Sam’s first thought was that he absolutely had to find Abigail to give her the notebook and money back. He was an honest man, so there was no way he’d think of keeping it even though he could easily get away with it and even though it would more than catch him and his wife up on their mortgage and other bills.

In an attempt to find a way to find her, he started thumbing through the pages to look for contact info, but there was none to be found. On the last page, however, it said in bold letters “DEAR SAM, IT’S FOR YOU AND STACY. IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN. PAY IT FORWARD WHEN YOU CAN. I’LL BE WATCHING. GOOD LUCK.”