My Sweet Leavette

… And there I was, seeing her gleam, my dear old friend, waiting for me with such joy and relief. Blissfully enamored with life once again, I could feel it as if were my own feelings. I had a purpose after all. If I had not waited, I would’ve turned into dust. Missing the only opportunity to feel truly alive. I almost gave up. It really seemed that one else in this world was pure enough, gentle, or even selfless as she had been to fulfill my mission. Everything, simply everything I represent would’ve been lost and I would’ve never experienced such ecstasy in life. Oh life…

(flashback) just 2 days prior exactly at 11:31pm on a drizzly rainy night. Walking down the grim lit street with her backpack on her shoulder and looked drained from life itself; yet nervousness was overflowing her person. This girl approached me.

Lights flashed past reluctant to stop and worry about me. I was nothing… what could I possibly expect? What true chance could I honestly expect from such selfish people who oversaw children and families living out in the cold streets or witnessing abuse right in front of their eyes but say nothing, because it was easier to stay quiet. What chance could I possibly get to meet that one person who surpassed everyone else? I was ready to accept my faith. So many years have passed and the ones who have noticed me, have done so yearning for selfish motives, everyone else has failed to notice me for everything I could potentially offer them. I was ready to make that final moment happen and disappear. But then I felt her, this young girl, she placed her hand on me and wiped away the rain off my covers and without a single doubt asked me “ who could have been so unlucky to have lost you?” I felt like answering back but honestly, I for once was left speechless.

Without hesitation she excused herself and started to look for clues as to where it might be that I belong or to whom I might belong. But the only thing that was rushing through my thoughts was that for once a person wasn’t trying to see what I could offer them, but in fact she was looking for ways of offering me some much-needed guidance. I kept thinking it might all be a dream or simply a figment of my imagination that someone with such soft hands and gentleness could pick me up off the ground and not care if I was soiled or damaged goods. Could this be possible? Could I had almost given up on humanity? Is it true that it only takes just one person’s kindness, for a peculiar thing, such as myself to change my entire perspective on life itself?

She took me in without a doubt, my disbelief had reached its limits. She took me to her warm yet tiny home, cleaned me up, and sat in front of me talking; saying a lot of wonderful things, igniting a fire to which had been forced dimmed for years. She kept saying “ you’re beautiful and everyone must’ve told you this before!” or “ whoever it was that left you didn’t appreciate you enough to keep you by their side, they shouldn’t and couldn’t be human!” as she tried to get me dried up. I’m in an awe for words. I’m cold silent, and she left to her room as soon as she saw her watch and realized she only had but a few hours left to rest. I sat there at her kitchen table looking at such an empty place. There was one cup, one plate, one bowl, and two forks in the dish rack. There was also a half empty water bottle, and cups of instant soup to my left, simply lying around the kitchen counter. There was a lot of newspaper on the table with different jobs circled and crossed out. But something that caught my eye… it was this handwritten sign above her door saying, “ never fail to look at the inner beauty of what life brings your way”. I realized that she didn’t have much but had a lot to offer.

This cruel world, in which I’ve learned that its sole purpose was to teach everyone to be emotionless and evil. I thought “You might as well be a book for that matter!” A book filled with knowledge of how to love and live but with no ability to express this to someone or something. Yeah humanity has really reached a new low for me.

I stayed exactly where she left me thinking to myself “could she be the one whom my dear friend had told me about?” She would tell me how my sole purpose was to change lives, but how? I’m but something so small and to some even insignificant. How could I possibly change her life and for the better? I thought to myself, then it hit me, my dear old friend who I lost such a long time ago always looked after me and said, “I have no one else in this world but you”. And would continue “ you will have to find someone and change their lives with a secret only you can uncover for them”. But I’m cold and far to wet to even remember what that secret was. So, I started to open my covers and realized maybe I can dry up quicker this way. After all it was warm and cozy in here.

Suddenly, I hear her banging and tossing, rushing out of her room… trying to put socks on while eating an apple. She’s a multitasker for sure, but she looked worried. And that’s when I told her a few lines. My name is Leavette. But I’m still cold and wet that I couldn’t share much more. She smiled and said, “you look like a leavette”. Whatever that was supposed to mean and rushed outside the door. As the day progressed, I saw the sun beaming on me and my thoughts begun to get more clearer, some would even say legible. I started to remember that my dear old friend wrote to me everyday and even put down a name. Her lawyer! That’s right his name was Emiliano and we could find him at 166 E 63rd Street in NYC. She would love this! She would be able to help me find some answers. But the sun was starting to set, and she didn’t show. I waited and waited, and finally I heard the door open. It was her, just a few minutes to sunrise. She looked exhausted yet happy. She turned to me, looked down at me, and without hesitation she grabbed her coat, and me, and we were on our way to this so-called lawyer. We got on so many buses that I lost count. Not to mention that I almost got lost in the train, it’s a good thing she looked back and grabbed me right out of the seat “watch out for the closing doors!” the train said.

After a few hours and a lot of walking we arrived. She asked for the man and we went up an elevator. She looked more and more nervous as the numbers rose. Finally, the doors opened, and I peaked to see if anything would jog my memory but no nothing did. He approached us and said I think I know why you’re here, he told us. He led us into his office and asked her to have a seat and started talking and talking and I couldn’t hear much but I saw everything her confused look, his joy, and then she started crying. I was confused but she turned to me and hugged me, and I had forgotten what that felt like. It reminded me of my dear old friend. She never took me out of her sight and well I knew everything about her life possibly more than anyone else could’ve in her time. I saw the lawyer hand her a briefcase and they started signing. I love signatures, it’s the most efficient and decorative way of noting that its you and no one else could copy you. Like a sacred language that makes everything official.

She hugged him filled with joy and the lawyer looked as if he had accomplished a lifetime goal. Little did I know that my dear old friend had left an inheritance for a stranger, one whom would return me and meet all the qualities to receive a fortune, her fortune; someone kind and selfless, a person with a pure heart and drive, someone that needed this more than she needed it, and someone that would return me back to my home; next to my dear old friend who had been waiting for me. We spent the rest of the day on the road to my dear old friend who had been in some sort of far away mansion all by herself. She opened the door and I saw her, and she picked me up and hugged me like she would normally do. I couldn’t believe it; I was back home! She thanked her and the girl to my surprise said that she was happy she had chosen her but that others needed this money more but my friend she refused to take it back. She said don’t you have dreams girl? Don’t you have goals? Achieve them with the sole limitation of your mind and not a financial limitation anymore. Go on and change the world for me. She hugged her.

Finally, she said to her, I can’t thank you enough for bringing her back to me, she had one difficult, long, and overwhelming mission, what a challenge she faced. Thank you for bringing my thoughts and dreams back to me and reminding me that there is still hope in this humanity. The girl walked away, and my dear old friend bought me inside. “My sweet leavette” she said as she opened me and saw my pages slightly soiled and still a bit wet from all that rain. My first page reading “Hi my name is Leavette, what secrets can you tell me today?”. Did you miss me? she said to me, so I turned to my last page which read “with love… your dear old friend” which to my best ability I kept as clean as a whistle and without a single drop of water. You have achieved a goal in my life for me. To give my fortune to someone who truly deserved it without expecting it, when she needed it the most. She then sat down and watched the sun start to set and wrote below her signature on my last page “Thank you Leavette, my little black notebook.”