From Trash To Treasure

The pounding at the door woke Bruce up. Pounding that was only slightly louder than the ringing in his ears. Apparently, he has overindulged, overslept, and is probably the housekeeper knocking. As he tried to clear his head, Bruce started to remember that he was staying at the Kahlo Hotel, has a new album due in three months, and needed to get to the studio in London.

At the door was the Housekeeper, Elizabeth, and trying to get in urgently.

"Sir, are you checking out this morning?" Elizabeth sweetly asked, "I need to get in to clean for our next client."

"Give me one moment."

Bruce rolls out of bed, throws on some clothes, and rushes out of his hotel room to the lobby. Elizabeth heads in and proceeds to start cleaning up the room.

In the hotel's lobby, Francesco, a homeless man who made one wrong decision too many, is walking around looking for whatever he can get. He is well known among the staff as friendly, unobtrusive, and even helpful. Behind the hotel desk is Tony and Maria hard at work.

"Hey Francesco," Chimes out Maria.

Francesco replies nicely. "Good Morning. I see that you are busy as usual."

"Yes, hopefully, we will get some help in here soon." Maria replies

Tony takes a harsher tone and admonishes Francesco. "You know you can't be in the lobby. You need to leave.”

At that moment, in a heated rush, Bruce comes through the hotel lobby. Francesco puts out his hand for a donation but is hurriedly brushed aside by Bruce, who runs out the front door to his limo with his Manager, Daniel, already waiting inside. The limo speeds off down the road towards the airport.

"You have your passport, right," Daniel asks Bruce.

"Yes, but you know I hate planes. If I were able, I would walk everywhere I needed to go."

Bruce continues to pat his pockets to make sure he has everything and becomes distressed.

"Wait, where is my little black book? This is a catastrophe", Bruce exclaims

"So, you forgot your notebook. I will get you another one at the airport." Daniel calmly replies.

"It is not that simple. That book contains my thoughts, scribbles and lyrics for the new album. I will not be able to recreate all that in time.

"Bruce, we are already running behind," Daniel says impatiently.

Bruce disregards his manager and shouts directly at the driver.

"Driver, we need to go back to the Hotel!"

"Yes, Sir," and with that, the driver turns the limo around and heads back toward the hotel.

"Are you kidding me? The studio time in London is nonrefundable."

Meanwhile, Francesco is scavenging in the alleyway trash behind the hotel. Because of the upscale patronage, he usually finds items to use or sell off for some change. From experience, Francesco knew that the garbage truck comes early on Wednesday mornings, so he needed to beat them to the treasures.

As he picks through the trash, he finds a half-eaten sandwich, a cigarette that still has a few puffs left, and a little black book. He opens the book and finds it full of all sorts of writings and on the inside cover a quote.

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts," Francesco reads this to himself before closing the book and placing it with the rest of the items in his cart. And on cue, the garbage truck is right behind him, picking up the trash.

Bruce's limo pulls back in front of the hotel, and he and his entourage come rushing back into the lobby. "

"I need to find my Little black book," Bruce shouts.

"What?" Tony replies.

"Yes, I left my book in the room. Where is it?"

"I don't know, Sir. Let me check with the Housekeeper."

Tony calls over the PA system.

"Elizabeth, please come to the front desk."

Elizabeth arrives at the front desk with all eyes on her.

"Did you clean out room 1571 this morning," Tony asks.

Elizabeth shakes her head yes.

"Were there any of the client's items found there?"

"No, I just cleaned up the trash and dumped it out back."

Bruce explodes. "Trash, she is calling my book trash."

"What did I do wrong?" Elizabeth says visibly shaken.

Bruce shouts at the front desk clerks.

"If we do not get that book back, we will sue this place and everyone in it."

"Sir, I understand," Tony replies and then turns his attention to Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth, I need you to retrace anywhere the trash might have gone so we can track down this book."

"Yes, Sir," Elizabeth replies.

Elizabeth goes out the hotel's back door, runs over, and opens the dumpsters, but she is too late; the garbage truck is long gone and the trash with it. She begins crying loudly.

Francesco sees her crying and comes over to comfort her.

"What is wrong, my dear," Francesco asks.

"I made a customer so mad. I think I am going to get fired."

"Come on, who can be mad at a sweetheart like you?"

"That famous singer who was staying here lost a little black book. He values it more than anything."

"A little Black Book, you say?" Francesco said with a slight grin.

"Yes, why?"

Francesco rummages through his items and pulls out the little black book.

"You mean like this one."

Elizabeth lets out a slight squeal, then grabs Francesco by the same hand that he is holding the black book by and drags him into the hotel.

"Wait, wait, they do not want me in there."

"They will when they see what you got."

Bruce and Daniel were still at the front desk yelling about the loss of the little black book.

"Tell everyone that we will give whoever finds my book a reward.” Bruce exclaims

“I will make an announcement. How much should I say the reward is?" Tony asks.

Daniel looks towards the singer "5,000...10,000?"

"Not enough. We need to find it right now. Make it twenty thousand.

"Twenty thousand dollars?!" Daniel exclaims.

"Yes, that will get it found in no time.”

“Twenty thousand it is”

Right then, Elizabeth comes running into the lobby dragging Francesco behind her.

"Sir, Sir, it has been found," Elizabeth says excitedly.

"Please say that that you have my book."

"I don't, but he does." Elizabeth cheerfully says as she pushes Francesco in front while he still nervously clutches the book.

Bruce takes it out of Francesco's hands.

"Dear Sir, you have saved my life."

Bruce turns to Daniel.

"Write this man a check."

"For twenty thousand dollars?"

"Yes, the things written in this book are worth ten times as much to me."

Daniel quickly scribbles out the check and hands it to Francesco.

"Here, you go," He says with slight disdain.

Francesco looks at the check and then back at Daniel in disbelief.

"Is this for real" Francesco asks incredulously

Daniel quickly fires back, "It's not made out of rubber. It won’t bounce."

Francesco looks at the check again and then turns to Maria behind the hotel front desk.

"Do you accept checks?"

"We sure do, Francesco, I mean Sir."

"Then I would like to reserve the Milan Suite for a week."

Francesco hands her the check.

"Anything else, Sir."

"Yes, please, five thousand cash, you know I am good for it.

"Yes, Sir, right away. The Bellboy will escort you to your room."

Maria rings the bell on the desk to summon a bellboy.

"Bellboy! Please take Mr. Francesco to his room.”

"Will there be any luggage?"

"Nope, just the clothes on my back."

"Then follow me, Sir."

The bellboy and Francesco take the elevator to the top floor, go down the hall, and opens the room door.

As Francesco walks into the room, the bellboy follows.

"Sir, if you would like, I can have your clothes dry cleaned."

"No need for that," Francesco says while still being stunned by the opulence of the room.

"Umm, Sir, I would recommend you do."

"Ok, but I want to grab a bath."

"No trouble, sir. Just leave them on the hangars. I will come back, pick them up and have them for you by the morning."

"Thank you so much." Francesco states as he hands the Bellboy hearty tip.

After the bath, Francesco jumps into the oversized bed, hoping that this day was not a dream that he would wake up from, and falls asleep.

The next morning, finding that the dream is still real. Francesco rolls out of bed. He sees that his clothes have been dry cleaned, pants and shirts pressed, and a complimentary breakfast has been delivered to his room. Francesco puts on his clothes, grabs a bite to eat, and heads out to walk around town for the day.

While walking down the street, Francesco passes a barbershop and sees well-dressed gentlemen getting their haircuts done. He walks in.

"Can I get a cut?" Francesco shyly says.

The head barber waves him over to the chair.

"Of course, please take a seat."

Francesco sits down in the barber’s chair. The barber looks over Francesco's hair and beard.

"This may take a moment."

After the haircut is done, Francesco sees his reflection in the barber's mirrors. He truly likes what he sees for the first time in a long time.

He pays the barber and proceeds down the street.

A few doors down, he comes across a Men's clothing store with fancy suits in the windows.

Francesco catches a reflection of himself wearing his shabby clothes, then looks back at the fancy suits before going into the clothing shop.

After twenty minutes, Francesco is getting one last suit hemmed and tailored for him.

The store clerk adds up the total on his calculator.

"That will be three suits, five shirts, two pairs of shoes."

Pointing to the shirt, pants, and shoes Francesco is trying on.

"Would you like for me to wrap those up for you, sir"?

"No, I would like to wear these out."

Francesco pays for his items in cash and heads out the door. Continuing down the street, he sees a bookstore, gets an idea and heads in.

"Hello, may I help you"? The greeter asks

"Where are journals located?"

"Lower level to the right."

"Thank you."

Francesco heads downstairs, looking over to the journal section. There are many selections of brown leather ones, red ones, alongside the rose color ones which seems to be popular these days, then he saw the perfect one for him, A little black book, just like the one that has changed his life so suddenly. Francesco grabs the book and hurries upstairs to the cash register to pay.

As he walks out, the associate asks, "Did you find what you are looking for, Sir."

"I sure did."

Francesco walks out of the store and back to the hotel. As he enters the hotel, he sees that Maria and Tony are still busy behind the front desk.

"Working hard?" He says, jesting.

"As always. We could really use some help." Maria replies

"I could help."

"You?" Tony says, shocked.

"Yes, I used to work at a Resort upstate during the summer breaks. I think I can handle it."

"That is great. Let me check with my manager and see what we can do. I will let you know in the morning."

"No problem, you know where to find me, at least for the next few days."

And with that, Francesco hops on the elevator back up to his suite.

Once in the room, he crashes down on the bed and opens the package with the little black book. He admires the book for a moment, and with glee, turns to the back of the front cover and writes, "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts."

He closes the book places it on his nightstand, and lays down to sleep.