No Need For Greed

Lexi woke up with a start and glanced at the clock. How could it be morning already? She heard her older son laughing in his room so that was a good sign, at least he was already up. Some mornings it was a real job to get him out of bed. She took a moment to see if she could hear her other son and sure enough the delightful theme song of his favorite phone game came wafting out of his room. She took a quick moment to check her emails and messages and seeing nothing of real importance, shook the sleep away as best as she could and headed to the bathroom.

After she finished in the bathroom, she did her hair, quickly applied her makeup, brushed her teeth, and headed out of her room where she was immediately flocked by her children. She did really enjoy seeing their excitement first thing in the morning. They had always been close but ever since the divorce they had grown even closer as now life seemed to be just the three of them. Her older son Jacob is 10 and in 4th grade while her younger son Jaymes is 7 and in 1st grade. “Get dressed quickly boys” Lexi chimes as she gives them boys a hug and kiss on the way by to make their breakfast. “I’d like to drop you off at the before-school program if possible today”. “Okay Mom” they respond a little begrudgingly but get moving, nevertheless.

The drive to school was quick and drop off was smooth Lexi thought as she sat in her car watching the other parents ushering their kids across the crosswalk. She waited for a vehicle to drive by before backing up and continuing her trek to work. She enjoyed the drive to work each day as it was her time to enjoy some tunes and get ready for the day ahead. As long as she was able to get the kids to school before the first bell, she could guarantee she’d get her “spot” at work which was how she liked it and sure enough she saw it open as she was pulling in. “Score!”, she thought in her head. Her coworkers Lee and Peter pulled in at the same time, so she waited for them to get out of their respective vehicles. “Good morning guys, how are you?” she asked. “Good,” responded Peter. “I’m doing well, although it’s pretty windy out today” countered Lee. “That’s for sure!” Lexi says. As Lexi walked in she thought about how everyday felt like the same thing over and over again and still nothing really changes. She has dreams of owning her own company but that takes money and money is not something she has but she still makes things work. Someday though, she still thinks she will make things change.

She parts ways with Peter and Lee. They both work upstairs in customer service and she is downstairs in operations. She works at a cluster of four desks whereas only two people work at the desks. It is just her and her boss, Lacey. People make jokes at the office about how similar their names are, but she likes that it is just the two of them. They work in a small, family run company, Frankie’s Finances. There are ups and downs to working there as with any job but overall, it is a genuinely nice place to work. “Good morning” she says to Lacey as she sits down and signs in. “Morning” Lacey replies before she takes another bite of her apple. Lexi quickly gets to work and before she knows it lunch time is approaching. She looks at the weather on her phone and it looks warm and sunny. She thinks a nice walk around the park would be a fun way to spend her lunch hour. Her and Lacey rotate who has lunch first and this week it is Lexi’s turn, so she clocks out and heads on out.

The sunshine felt amazing. So warm and inviting after being inside all morning. The wind had died down too so that made the outdoors even better. Behind the work building was a beautiful park. There was a decent sized lake on one side and next to it a huge hill that the city covered with snow in the winter for kids and parents alike to sled down. Next to that was the community center which was the center point and on the other side of that was a playground for the kids. Behind the community center stretching for several miles and winding all around were several walking trails that was where Lexi planned to make a loop around. She was not exactly sure which trail she would take today but she started down the first path on the right and figured she would go whichever way she felt like until it was time to go back. She is just reaching the end of the path next to the big hill when she notices what appears to be a clump of black on the ground up ahead. As she gets closer, she sees that it is in fact a little black notebook on the ground. She goes over to it and picks it up and sees it is rather beat up but the pages inside are in good condition. She opens the front cover and sees an address listed that while she knows where it is, she knows it is not incredibly close. She decides it would be better for her to hold onto the notebook for now, at least until she can mail the notebook back to the owner or find a way to contact them. She decides she would rather head back than keep walking with the notebook though, so she clasps the notebook close and heads back.

When she gets back into her workplace, she decides to have a closer look inside the notebook. The front page still has the address inscribed along with the name Peggy Norton. Interesting, she thinks. On the next page she notices a series of numbers:

21, 24, 18, 3, 13, and 6 next to the inscription MM.

Strange, she thinks. Oh well, this book makes no sense. She decides to put the book into her backpack and get back to work.

The next day was a rainy day so she brought her lunch and was eating her lunch in the break room and was reading the paper when her eyes happened to fall on the winning Mega Millions lottery numbers and in the paper, they were 21, 24, 18, 3, 13, and 6. She could not believe her eyes! She quickly went to grab the book and opened it up to the page but instead of the same numbers as before, it listed:

04, 27, 31, 42, 53, and 19 next to the inscription PB.

Her brain starts cranking and she is wondering if the first numbers were the winning numbers to the Mega Millions and then once the winning numbers were chosen the book switched them to the winning numbers to the Power Ball drawing. This time she takes a picture of the numbers so she can test her theory out after the drawing goes by. She kept paging through the book to see what other secrets it entailed and as far as she could tell, the book was full of secrets! Anything and everything you would want to know about anyone was held in that book. So many things that could easily get you famous and rich as well as secrets that could easily get you killed. That book was unbelievably valuable and no doubt that person it belonged to would want it back, and sooner than later. That is, if she is right about what the lottery numbers are all about. Maybe the book is all an elaborate hoax someone put on. She will just want a few days for the drawing and see.

The night has come, time for the Power Ball drawing. She turns on the tv, has her paper out and the notebook open in front of her as well. First number is called, 04, second number, 27, third number, 31, fourth number, 42, fifth number, 53, and finally, 19. The whole time Lexi was getting more and more excited and was watching as the numbers in the notebook were slowly fading and getting replaced with the next set. There was no question in her mind now, she had to hand deliver the notebook as soon as she could.

The coming Friday was the Friday her kids were set to go to their Dad’s house. They typically got picked up straight from school so as soon as Lexi was done with work she set out on her mission. She put her destination in the GPS and headed out. Soon she arrived at one of the biggest houses she had ever seen. It was clearly a mansion with a gated entrance she had to buzz to even approach.

Buzz “Hello” someone said through the speaker,

“Ummm, Hi…My name is Lexi, I have something here I found I want to return to Mrs. Norton.”

“What do you have?” They inquired.

“I found a little black notebook.” Lexi answered.

The gate quickly swung open and a big, beefy man was standing there.

“Mrs. Norton sent me to collect the little black notebook. Where did you get it?”

“I work at Frankie’s Finances and was walking at the park behind the building at lunch and found it”

“Thank you for returning it…what’s your name?”

“I’m Lexi.”

“Thank you, Lexi. I’ll be sure Mrs. Norton knows it was you who brought it back.”

And just like that Lexi was on her way.

Lexi left feeling good to have done her good deed for the day know the book was back in its rightful place.

Monday morning Lexi woke with a start. Mornings always seem to come so quick! She got up, got ready, got the kids up and ready and followed her usually mundane morning routine per usual. On her drive to work though her thoughts were on what could have been with that little black notebook had she taken a different path, but she knew she did the right thing. As she pulled up to work and looked to see if her spot was open, she instead saw a different surprise parked in the parking lot. Right outside the doors there was a limousine! She wondered who could possibly be in there, but she didn’t have to wonder long as when she got out of her car a voice called out to her…

“Lexi?”

“Yes?”

“Hi, it’s me, Mrs. Norton, but you can call me Peggy. I have been doing some investigating into you and I just want to say how impressed I am with you and how when you had the little black notebook, you did not use it for your own personal gain. You do know what it does, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do.”

“I figured as much…I figured that’s why you hand delivered the book to me, which also speaks to your character as well.

“I didn’t want it to fall into the wrong hands.”

“Exactly. We have the power if it gets used, and we would know, to find it and reverse history for a short period of time, which you will find out more about later, if you take my offer…what I want to propose is this. First, please take $20,000.00 as a reward for returning the book and not using it. Then, will you and your family please move in with me and learn about me and my family and carry on our legacy and be my successor? I need someone I can trust, and I believe you are exactly the person I have been searching for. What do you say?