Your Name Here

In Which The Book Comes Home With Sue

“How much did you pay for this one?” Mitch held the book out, away from his body, fingers barely gripping the cover. Sue looked over to see a small, black, leatherbound book dangling precariously over the dogs’ feeding trough where Mitch had been standing when she walked into the kitchen. She had been to the library book sale that morning, and, as usual, had hauled home several boxes of treasures. Boxes of books and more books to be added to her already overflowing bookshelves. Her dedication to the collection of books was admirable.

She rescued the book from Mitch & took it to her ‘book nook’, placing it on one of the tables beside the cozy chair where she did her reading sometimes. Book nook reading was always the kind of reading where Sue would make herself a cup of tea or pour a glass of wine and sit for hours upon hours totally engrossed in the pages between her hands. It was during one of these book nook reading sessions when Mitch had walked in to tell her that their old Bassett Hound, Ketchup, seemed really sick and that he was going to take her to the vet. And then, 4 hours later, when Mitch walked in to find her still in the nook, she had looked up & seen tears in his eyes. She was genuinely befuddled by his sadness, followed by anger that he had not made a bigger deal about Ketchup’s dire condition and had taken her off to the vet without her.

Of course, they had fought then, before Sue realized how cruel she was being to Mitch, just because she was confused, because she had been lost to reality that he had to deal with alone. That was how Mitch saw his life, anyway, him dealing with reality while Sue lost herself in her ‘creative’ pursuits.

“Nothing more than two dollars at the library book sale, so…...two dollars MAXIMUM,” she finally responded to his question, returning to the kitchen.

Funny, though, she did not remember putting that particular book into any of her boxes at the library, nor did she remember handing it to the very polite older man at the checkout. The book itself was nondescript, the cover plain black leather, well worn, with no markings. It was small and all the pages seemed to be handwritten using either black or blue ink, with each page neatly numbered at the bottom. Sue was anxious to return to the mystery book later, but that would have to wait. Saturday loomed large before them and there was no time for starting a new read.

Page 66

Sue sat looking at Page 66...the 66 was by far the most ornately formed of all the page numbers. It was really quite beautiful, both blue & black ink had been used with the sixes intertwined. And on this page had been written a date, with no year; and that date just happened to be tomorrow’s date, September 9th. Underneath the date was written:

4:30 Post Office

Nothing else was written on the page. How odd. The rest of the book was filled with names of people and notes about the people. For instance on page 111 was this note, about someone named Travis: “Travis needs socks & pants. His hair has not been cut in several years & he could use a bath. He was a teacher before, he says a long time ago. He has a daughter - she moved West.” Page 240, “Helen has a place to stay with her cousin if she could just get there. Her friend is selling a good truck for $3500.” Or this note, which broke Sue’s heart, “Cara needs $5000 to pay for her daughter’s funeral. Her daughter was only a few months old, it won’t cost much”. Page after page, numbered, with a note of a person in need. Except Page 66. Page 66, with tomorrow’s date, a time & a place.

Your Name Here

The next day was Sunday and Sue could not wait till 4:30. She spent all afternoon trying to find ways to occupy her mind; since Mitch had gone to visit with his parents today he was not around to keep her busy. She had already decided that she would be at the Post Office at the appointed time, even though she knew it would be closed and that most likely there would be absolutely nothing to see. The Post Office was in the historic part of their city and it was a pleasant day, she could sit on one of the benches & just hang out, see what transpired.

The day was hot, she broke out in a sweat on the short walk from her car. As she neared the building, the sunlight seemed to get even more intense, as though the land that the Post Office sat on was closer to the sun than its surroundings. She could see a bench across the way that was in the shade of a large oak tree & hurried to reach it, anxious to get out of the heat. She felt faint as she sat & didn’t see the small black book until she almost sat on it. Fumbling a bit, she rescued the book from becoming her cushion & sat down in the cool shade. Closing her eyes, she breathed deeply in & out a few times as a cool breeze fluttered around the pages of the book now in her lap.

Finally, she opened her eyes & looked at her watch to see that the time was just now 4:30. Not a soul around…..no sounds, no traffic…..just Sue, the breeze, and a few birds & squirrels. Glancing down, she realized she had forgotten that she had a book in her lap. The book was open & the page was 66; the note there read, “Sue needs $20,000 to start living the life she was made for”. Sue stared at it, her name on the page, the dollar amount that she knew was the exact amount that she needed. Finally, after sitting for a very long time, she placed the book beside her on the bench & stood up. As she walked away, she knew two things: she would not see the little black book again & that she would postpone her dream no longer.