Book on the Bus

“Henry”

Tuesday, 3pm

Ritz Café, Booth 4

This was the first entry Tomas saw when he picked up and opened that little black notebook he found on the bus. He filtered through the book trying to find any hints as to the owner, with full intentions of giving it to them, but he continued to see this similar theme throughout. Name, day of week, time, and location repeated page after page. Tomas was curious but could not find any kind of information about the owner. Even these mysterious entries had no real information. No phone numbers or email addresses, and it didn’t even appear to have any real names. Tomas wondered whether he should just drop the notebook in a trash bin or drop it off at the library near where he found it since he felt he could be of no help. Once he arrived at his office, he became distracted and stuffed the notebook in his laptop bag and swiftly forgot about it.

The next morning, Tomas was at his desk working on a budget report. He overheard some colleagues chatting outside his office about going to the Ritz Café for lunch and it donned on him that he remembered reading that in the little black book. He pulled the book out of his bag and once again wondered how he could return it to the owner. Finally, he thinks to himself, “Maybe this Henry guy will know how I can return the book. I’ll head to the Ritz café at 3:00 pm to meet him.” Tomas went on about his day at work, trying to get through his tasks as quickly as he could knowing that he would need to leave the office early to meet Henry.

At 3:00 Tomas entered the Ritz Café. There were only a few patrons inside the café. Tomas noticed that each table had a rusty gold tag at the edge of the table, indicating the table number. He walked over to the row where all of the booths were and was surprised that no one was sitting at booth four. Tomas sat down, assuming Henry would be along shortly. He positioned himself to be seated facing the door of the café so that he could see people as they came in. Ten minutes went by, and no Henry. No new customers at all. Twenty minutes go by, and only one other customer had come into the café, but it was a woman and she sat down at a table with someone else. Tomas thought to himself, “Hmm, I wonder if this is an old entry? Maybe the owner of the black notebook doesn’t plan to meet Henry anymore?” Tomas is still very curious and wants to be helpful, so he decides to wait around longer. He reaches into his bag and pulls out his laptop and other work supplies so that he can get some more work done while he waits. After an hour, Tomas decides to give up. He begins to pack his things back into his bag when his pen rolls off the table onto the floor beneath him. He leans down under the table to pick up his pen and that’s when he saw it. An envelope taped to the underside of the table with the name “Henry” written in sloppy handwriting with a permanent marker. Tomas sat back up in shock, looking around the cafe wondering if anyone is noticing. Nothing is out of sorts at the café and everyone appears to be doing the same thing they’ve been doing for the last hour. Tomas is perplexed and nervous. He doesn’t know if he should take the envelope or just walk away. He feels like a statue. He is barely able to move and his heart is racing so fast and beating so loudly that he can barely hear the sounds of the café anymore. Tomas made a split-second decision and grabbed the envelope, stuffed it in his bag, and left a $20 bill on the table which more than covered the cost for his coffee and pastry. He walked quickly out of the café and headed to the bus station.

While Tomas sat on the bus for the ride home, he was still quite nervous. So many thoughts ran through his head.

“What if this is some kind of illegal payoff money and now I’m a target?”

“What if ‘Henry’ was watching me? What will he do to me if I’m not the person who was supposed to pick up the money?”

“What if the person who owns this little black book saw me and knows I’ve taken his envelope?”

Tomas arrived home and tried to forget about the envelope while he went about his normal evening activities, but the thoughts of the envelope and the little black book were all he could think about. He decided to just take the risk and open the envelope. With shaky hands, he quickly tore into it and inside he found $1,000 in one-hundred-dollar bills. No note, nothing else written on the inside of the envelope. That was it. He sat back in his chair and wondered what he had just gotten himself into. He pulled the little black book out of his bag and started looking through it to see if there was a name listed for the next day and sure enough, right there in black and white it read:

RuthAnn

Wednesday 8am

Persimmon Park; Statue

Tomas was now more curious than ever. He wondered what he would find if he decided to pull on this next thread. Would he go to Persimmon Park and actually find a woman named RuthAnn waiting for him? Would Henry be there waiting wondering why Tomas stole his money from the day before? He needed to know and made the decision to follow through on the next name in the book.

The next morning, Tomas woke early and called his boss to say he wouldn’t be coming in. He wasn’t sure what the morning would hold with the next name in the book and was worried it would delay his day in the office. This time, Tomas, arrived at the location early to see if he could spot anyone near the statue in the park. He arrived at 7:00 and waited about 50-feet from the statue in the park, pretending to read the newspaper for the day. After an hour and a half, no one approached the statue. There were many passersby but not one person even went near the statue other than to walk past it. Again, Tomas was perplexed but curious. He waited another hour to let the activity at the park calm down as this was a busy location in the mornings and afternoons when people walk through to get to and from their jobs. At 9:00 Tomas slowly meandered toward the statue. He walked around it and didn’t see an envelope. He took another pass around the statue, investigating more closely. Still nothing. Scratching his head, he looked around in his anxious state of mind, really starting to panic that he was in way too deep. He was almost expecting someone to come from out of nowhere and hit him over the head with a bat or a metal pipe. Just then, he noticed an irrigation valve box on the ground right under the backside of the statue. He wondered if there would be a new envelope and if it were hiding in there. Tomas slowly walked toward the valve box, carefully looking around and observing his surroundings. He lifted the cover of the box and found his next envelope wrapped inside a plastic bag to ensure it wouldn’t get wet. On the envelope, written in blue ink was the name “RuthAnn.” Tomas grabbed the envelope and stuffed it in his jacket pocket and quickly hailed a cab to return home.

Once home, Tomas opened the envelope. This one contained $2,000 in one-hundred-dollar bills, and again no note or any other indication as to what the money was for. Tomas fuddled through the little black book one more time, only this time he wrote down every single name, and location on a calendar he had in his home. He noticed that each of the entries spanned over a three-week period of time. He marked off all of the entries on his work calendar so that he wouldn’t miss any of the other envelope pick-ups and could still maintain his duties at work. Over the course of the next three weeks, Tomas followed the notes inside the notebook and picked up envelopes for “Ginger”, “Lola”, Duke”, “Toby” and many others. In total, Tomas ended up with $20,000 in cash. He sat at home after the final pickup, still surprised that no one came knocking on his door looking for all the missing money. Tomas is someone who believes in karma and came to the conclusion that he needed to turn the money and the little black book into the police.

On his way to work the next morning, he decided to make a stop at the nearest police station to do just that. As Tomas was sitting on the bus with the money and book securely in his bag, he happened to notice a woman across from him reading the local newspaper. He thought he saw the name “RuthAnn” right on the front but he wasn’t sure so he asked the woman if he could take a look briefly. “Sure!” she replied, “This is my stop anyway so you can just have it.” Tomas thanked her and started to look at the paper, and there it was in black and white. RuthAnn, Henry, Ginger, Lola, Duke, Toby, and all of the other names Tomas had picked up envelopes for. Each name was printed underneath a photo of an animal and the headline read, “Furry Friends Pet Adoption Event Kicks Off With A Bang!”

Tomas was delighted to hear this wasn’t something illegal but was perplexed as to why people would leave envelopes of cash for something so simple. Why not just donate directly to the animal shelter? Instead of stopping at the police station, Tomas decided he would take the money directly to the animal shelter the next morning as part of the weekend-long charity event. He showed up to the park to see all of the animals, and to provide the cash as an anonymous donation. He felt good about being able to give the money to the shelter and was having a nice time watching all of the park goers play with the animals. As he sat on the bench at the park, he picked up the newspaper beside him and started to peruse it. In the obituary section, there was a headline presented which is rarely something you see on an obituary page, and it read:

“Family of alleged mob man Charley “The Tank” Rossi learns of his philanthropic efforts post-death.” Tomas kept reading, “Charley “The Tank” Rossi passed away on January 2nd of a heart attack. Charley was alleged to have been a very powerful mob boss, creating and running the Pane City Crime Syndicate, which was responsible for a variety of criminal activities over the last 30 years. Authorities are still uncovering details of the extent of the Pane City Crime Syndicate’s activities over the last 30 years but have also found evidence of hidden philanthropic efforts; specifically related to animals. It seems the dangerous mob boss had a soft spot for animals and would arrange for other criminals to provide money and resources for local pet shelters.”

Tomas sat in disbelief and amazement but felt a strange sense of proudness. Tomas was inspired and decided to adopt a Great Dane puppy from the event and named him “Tank.”