Unexpected

What could be worse than having to pay bills? Being behind on bills, now that was worse. Way worse. Rosemary stared down at all the bills that crowded her table. So many “past dues” and “due immediately” were staring back at her. She laid her head in her hand. What was she going to do? This giant headache of a mess was overwhelming it. It was as if it was enveloping her in this grief. And there was no way for her to escape. After losing her job, she had no idea where all the money was going to come from.

“Being an adult just blows.” She sighed. She used to work for a restaurant in downtown New Mexico. But with how everything was going in the country, that restaurant just could not stay alive. After two years of being there she walked into work and saw a big “going out of business sign” plastered on the window. She could feel her heart sinking. That was the end of the dream. She dreamed of one day owning this beautiful Mexican restaurant. Cooking was her dream. She loved walking into work and smelling the spicy air. There were so many beautiful dishes that came out of that kitchen every day. She would watch the cooks work their magic and see the result. The owners were like family to her and they taught her so much. They taught her how long to cook the perfect steak, how to perfectly season something so it was just the right amount of spicy. Just remembering everything made her feel like crying.

She shuffled through her mail.

“This is all just bills. People demanding for money.” Her hand paused on a little black book that seemed to have slipped into her mail. “This wasn’t in here before.” She muttered to herself. She tried to remember if she had picked it up with the rest of her mail. But she distinctly remembered not seeing a little black book. So where did it come from? She gently stroked the outside of the book. It was so smooth and inviting. Like it wanted you to write in it. For a minute she forgot what she was doing. She had this impulse to open it and just write all her feelings away.

“I definitely need to get some things off my chest.” She mumbled to herself. She opened the notebook. Slowly flipping through the pages. All the pages were blank. But how could this be? Was it just a brand-new notebook that she forgot she bought? It did not seem like it was used. Maybe she did buy it without even realizing it. But she had not been to the store lately. In fact, she had not really left her house since she lost her job. She was too sad to do that. She just wanted to avoid the world. So how did this notebook show up in her house?

She continued to flip through the pages when she fell on a small, folded note tucked away in the middle of the pages. Her fingers hovered over the note, not sure if she should read it. But the notebook was left in her house, regardless of how it got there. So, didn’t she have a right to read it? Whoever left it to her probably wanted her to read the note. So why not? She pulled the note from the notebook, slowly placing the notebook back on the table. She handled it like it was the most delicate thing in the world. As if one small bump would make it explode. She began to unfold the piece of paper. It was not a very big piece of paper. It did not take her long to completely unfold it. For a few minutes, she just stared at it. She did not really understand what she was seeing. She saw words. But none of them made sense. She squinted her eyes and reread the words. It was a check. A check. She gripped the paper as if it was going to disappear if she let it go.

“$20,000.”