The Secret of My Black Book

Since the beginning of time, many people have heard the saying the Little Black Book.

Of course, this could be anything ranging from phone numbers, business acquaintances, even important dates.

No matter what's inside, it's important to the individual who has it. But how valuable is the real question?

Well, sit back as you are about to find out about the secrets of the little black book I found that transformed my whole world.

Hello, my name is Austin Mackrow and I want to share with you a story about the day my life changed.

No, I didn't inherit money, no I didn't come up with a new gadget or patient for the next life-changing medicine.

All I did was find a little black book and with that, I was set on a collision course with destiny.

I'm sure by now your mind is racing, your skin is tingling and you'll ask yourself what is inside? What is in that book?

For the love of everything on earth.  Please tell me!

I will, but first, you have to do one thing for me and that is you must be open-minded!

You must be very open-minded, in order to truly understand this story!  

Alright now that I have your attention! LET'S GO!

It just makes me shiver when I flashback on this particular part of my life. It was all just a year ago which makes this story so  AWESOME!

So there I was... I like starting like that. It sounds more dramatic, doesn't it?

So there I was working a job that I really didn't like.

Yea, you know the one!

The type of job where you pray today is your last day. Hell sometimes you say, it's going to be your last day.

But when you are a single parent with two sons you don't have that option and to make matters even better add a medical condition.

If you have experienced this, then you know what I'm talking about, and here is where things get interesting.

Remember how I talked about my fantastic job. I was nothing more than a male maid. I know what you're saying, that's not so bad except that I cleaned out the houses that once belonged to the living.

You could call me the "Bereavement Cleaner". That's how I felt anyway.

People would lose their loved ones and of course be so struck with grief that they could not even step back into the house.

That's where I came in. Now you can see why I didn't like my job that much. After years of dealing with death and its aftermath

(the living relatives), a person can start to become numb and that's exactly where I was at.

The bad thing was it didn't stop at work. I would find myself with very limited emotions even when it came to my kids.

Feeling no type of emotions towards anything. That's when I knew I needed a miracle. Some type of intervention to this chaos. It had to stop.

Every day all I could fill a force pulling at me and this was no force of good. As they say in Hollywood, "The Darkside", yeah that's where I was. The next day I woke up to a loud knock on my front door. Of course, it was my only day off hints why I dreaded the thought of getting up. It was the most peaceful sleep I had been able to get in months. As I pass my living on my way to the front door I heard a voice on the tv say," You Will Receive More Today" so I replied I need to receive more now.

Just to be on the safe side I peeked out the window to see who was there. I noticed an older lady on the steps holding what appeared to be a pirate chess.

Of course, I was like who is this? Could this be the more I was waiting for?

So without hesitation, I snatched open the door with a huge smile on my face and said, "Hello, how can I help you"? 

As quickly as I opened the door I then quickly realized this was not the more I was looking for.

The older lady in this story we will refer to as Mom.

Mom proceeded to tell me her name and why she was standing at my door. To sum it up, Mom had told me how she was a mother of one and a grandmother of two.

Her son had recently got married and they had two daughters and lived in this amazing house exactly seven blocks away from me. As she continued with her story I couldn't help but wonder what was in the chess. Once again no quicker than I thought it, mom looked at me and said, "You want to know about the chess don't you?"

I replied, that I was not trying to be rude but I didn't know her and she was standing on my steps with chess telling me about her son.

Mom replied you are a good man like my son I see you walking to work every day and doing what needs to be done for your two sons.

I was thinking to myself. This has what to do with the tea in china figuratively speaking. Little did I know the bomb was about to drop and so was my heart.

Mom told me that they were urns she was holding inside of the chess.

I know what you're thinking. Ugh, Gross! At least that's what I was thinking. This poor mother was holding the urns of her only son and his family. Yes, I did not stutter her only son and his family.

The thing was, the son worked for a huge shipping company and somehow caught COVID when it first hit the US, and unfortunately, it spread throughout the whole house claiming the young girls first, then the mother, before claiming her son. At this point, I was freaking out and stuttering, yo-yo you you don't want me to take the chess, do you? Mom replied, "No sweetie". That was a sigh of relief there.

Mom then said, "I would like to hire you to clean out my son's house so I can sell it."

Without thinking I agreed. I think it was more out of fear honestly. I just wanted the chess full of urns gone. Especially now that I knew what it was inside the chess. Mom then explained how she would pay triple being that no other company would step foot in the house.

Not even the company I worked for, but my boss had told her about me and that I was a good man in need of extra cash. Thanks a lot, I thought!

My own boss won't step into the house that has potential COVID, but I can. Sounds more like a curse at this point.

I agreed to do it for free. I couldn't even think of taking her money. She had lost everything near and dear to her.

After a short convoy about what goes where and what can be toss. Mom wraps up by saying," Anything in my son's office you can have.

I'm thinking to myself ugh, no thank.

Your son died of COVID lady, but I didn't dare say it.

Later that evening I decided to go and get it done and over with. It was definitely the perfect time.

My sons were gone to their grandmothers for the summer which in a way was good in case I caught COVID.

As I approached the house I could feel the neighbors eyes upon me. The air was warm and thick. My palms were sweating, and my mask was fogging up my glasses but I had no fear which was odd.

Simply because of the fact that in the past whenever I would walk up to a house after a person had passed I would have a feeling of fear, except at this house I felt peace.

The door was a little hard to get into due to the fact that no one had entered the house in a year.

I thought to myself, it has been that long, so after I shook off the time shock I got to work. Making the most of my time with the strategies I had developed, all while singing Room-by-room, Broom-by-broom, Vroom-by-room. Say what you want it helps. Before I knew it, I was down to one room. "The office"!

As I entered the office I could tell that her son was a very brilliant man.

I felt almost like a little kid as I looked in awe at the number of awards and trophies he had. Also his collection of books and how I had never even heard of some of them. His desk was one of those businessman-type desks. If that makes any sense. Before I knew it a whole hour had gone by and the only work I had got done in there was with my eyes.

Yeah, snap out of it you was the last thing I said to myself before cleaning shelf after shelf, taking pictures of him and his family off the wall, and putting the awards in boxes for his mom.

By this time I was so excited!

Why? Because all I had left was the desk and then I was free. Free of this COVID house, free of the lady. Not that she wasn't sweet.

I was just still freaked out about how she was just standing on my steps with the urns. Even more distributing I thought it was the more I was looking for. Like more money, more house, more of something.

Bam!

That was the sound of the chair as I flopped down in it like a rock in a pool.

I was ready to get this over. Here we go I said as I pulled open the draw one by one. Five draws in total, but only three of them had something in it.

Weird I thought, but not nearly as weird as what happened next.

I was at the last draw on the desk located at the bottom right.

This was the last draw I had before I could make a b-line for the door. Little did I know that my life was about to change forever.

I opened up the last draw only to find a safe, but what was odd is, it had no ordinary safe. This safe was voice-activated and had a phrase engraved on it that read, "I'm a Good Man with a Good Heart". That's an odd saying I thought to myself.

Yet, I did not think twice and before I knew it, I was calling the grieving mother asking her about the safe.

Which immediately I felt like crap but she didn't because every time I kept trying to extend my apologies Mom would reply, "It's a reason for your season, just as it was for my son". The next thing Mom said had me stuck for a moment. She said, "one thing my son told me about that safe before he died was that whoever had a good heart and spoke those words, the safe would open.

Ummm okay, I said and hung up.

I know, I was like, how good of a person am I.

Here is this mother who has just lost her loved ones is now being hung up on by someone worried about getting into a safe.

Just being honest.

Anyway, after crucifying myself I begin to pace back and forth practicing my vocals as if I was about to sing.

Here goes nothing I said as I read the phrase, " I'm a Good Man with a Good Heart", then I heard a sound that made my heart skip a beat.

It was the lock! It had popped open!

I'm in the money, I'm in the money is all I was saying at this point.

Then I looked inside and WAM! NOTHING!!! No money, no cards, no titles, nothing but a torn cheap crusty looking black book.

It was about the size of my palm. I'm not gonna lie. I was pissed. I grab the book tossed it across the room. I was done!

All of this for what? Just because I felt bad for someone and now nothing.

I was on the verge of cursing but my mother ain't raise no fool!

Instead, I did the opposite I just sung my song as I took out the last bags of trash.

Upon my departure, I felt an urge to go back and pick up that little black book that I had threw like an NFL quarterback just earlier.

9:25 pm is what my clock read as I got off the bus and proceed to walk home.

Once I was home all I could think was home sweet home.

I had barely got into the house before I was taking everything off. Then in a mad dash, I took off everything I was wearing and ran it outside to toss it in the trash. All while in a bath towel that I had laid out before leaving. I was not letting COVID enter my home. I was taking no more chances than I had already. Now that I was back inside and without the police following me because I was outside half-naked, I had jumped into a much-needed shower.

I could finally relax. After some hours had passed I decided to kick back and watch the news. Which I rarely do. As I sat there with my feet up on the coffee table I noticed that crusty little black book. I tried ignoring it. I even threw it in the trash just to pull it out ten minutes later. That's when I said, "Hey, stupid open the book."

All this time and I had not even opened the book. I was hooked on the fact that it looked like a worthless piece of trash.

Like why would this be in a safe? How could this be a blessing?

Let me tell you something before going forward. The mind can play tricks on you that will have you in chains for life if you let it.

Now that the stupid man was out the way. I could now focus on the inside of the book. Not its outside appearance. It was like looking into some kind of scientific formula.

Example:(APS:$400/5%@10am,CWD:$500/10%@10am, SMA:$500/10%10am) and so on.

This cheap crusty little black book had different numbers on the front and back of every page.

I couldn't put it together. What were these numbers and times? Why was it even inside the safe?

The only thing I could understand was what it said at the bottom. "Always at exactly @ 10:00 am".

Needless to say, I was curious. I had to find out what this all meant, but sleep got the best of me.

The next morning I woke up to a voice on the tv saying, "Wake up America"! "It's time for you to make money!"

I must say it was a nice way of waking up but I wasn't prepared for what happened next.

On the bottom of the tv program was a bar that scrolled from right to left with the same letters that I had seen in the little black book the night before. I couldn't believe my eyes, every number I saw in the book was scrolling across my tv. I was glad I pulled it out of the trash.

This little black book had been filled with every stock on every market. The bonus was it had how much to trade them at and at what time? Exactly @ 10:00 am!

At first, I thought I was still asleep and in a deep dream. That was quickly confirmed not to be because in all my excitement I jumped so high I almost cracked my skull on the ceiling. Once my world came back into focus I grabbed my phone and opened my Broker app. I wanted to see what exactly I had inside this little black book.

I'm like this. What do I have to lose! I'll just try two or three of them and trade them at 10:00 am. Twenty minutes later I had close on three trades giving me a profit of $20,000.

What I had was like the secret book of the stock market.

Since then I make sure to involve myself with more people in need. Especially with those who have lost loved ones.

Some would say that's a bit crazy after all I had been through.

I would've been at the same depressing stage in my life if I had not helped the lady on my steps. So to me, that was crazy?

I feel she saved me. Now I am able to help transform other people's lives each and every day while spreading my story.

Ask yourself how often do we look at things thru our human eyes only to realize their lies? I'm living proof of that. Yeck, I threw away a $20,000 book. Not once but twice. Not everything is what it seems. Don't believe me. Just keep an eye out for a little black book for you never know.