The little rocks

The best story you can tell is your own they say so here we go.

I’m Maple, I know what you are thinking about my name but that’s another story. I’m 28 and I left Italy when I was 21 because I thought that I could finally be “happy”. Never really understand what “happy" means, maybe the word I’m looking for is satisfy.

I left in November 2001 and the first place I decided to discover was America. Who doesn’t want to go there, the land of the opportunities and where everything is possible, they say. I landed after a very long flight to the airport of Los Angeles, the crowd was unbelievable and of course I was alone and I had no idea where to go and who to ask. I went straight to the information point so that I could find a place to stay. This brunette lady, probably around her 40s looked at me and says

“What’s happening with you? You look pretty lost!”.

Well, I was.

“I’m Katie". She says. "I think I can help you”.

“Thank you, I just landed and I don’t have a place to stay yet, I don’t really know anything or anyone around here”.

She seams confused. “ Are you here alone ?”.

“Mh.. yes”. I answered.

“Well, LA can be a dangerous place for a girl like you”.

I didn’t know what’s that phrase means but I knew that wasn’t going to be easy and that’s fine for me. I like the idea of being “lost”. Since I was little I used to love reading books and my favourite was always thrillers, criminals and wander kind of stories.

Katie looked at me after she spent some times typing on the computer.

“So I found this hostel you can stay for the night and you’ll probably find people your age you can hang out with!”

“That’s great! Thank you very much!”

“Good luck”. She smiled at me like would be the last time she’ll ever see me.

I jumped on the bus that took me to Santa Barbara and once at the bus station I walked for almost 20min to get to the Hostel. I walked in and the receptionist was this very young guy, he was probably my age or younger.

“Hi, I’m Tom. How can I help you today?”

“Hi, I’m Maple. I think a lady named Katie called from the airport to reserve a room for me?!”.

“Yes, she reserved a bed. You’ll sleep with other 8 people in a shared room if that’s okay”.

“Oh. That’s fine” I said. It wasn’t really, after 16 hours flight I wanted to sleep but I knew it wasn’t going to happen in a room with other 8 excited teenagers ready to party.

I got my keys and I got to the room. Nobody was there, probably they were all outside, was still sunny outside couple of ours before sunset.

I couldn’t keep my self up, I lay in the bed and I fall asleep in two seconds.

I woke up around 2am because one of the roommate slammed the door when he got in.

“Oh, I’m sorry”. He says looking at me. “I’m drunk”. I don’t know why people think that’s an excuse for anything. I rolled on the other side and I kept sleeping.

The alarm ring at 7am and I woke up straight away. The smell of sweat in the room was disgusting, I need a shower.

Ready to go, I get out of the Hostel and I go straight to the first Starbucks to get a coffee.

Sitting on one of the couch of the cafe there is this lady that had such an intriguing aura. I couldn’t stop looking at her. I payed my coffee and I sit down on the table next to hers. She was looking inside this little wood box and checking if someone was looking at her, she looked so jealous about that box that makes me wander what was inside.

She saw me staring at her so she turn her head and said “Its rude staring at people you know?”.

“I know, I’m sorry but you look so into that books that makes me want to know what’s inside”.

“I can’t tell you”.

Okay, I accepted that, I turn my head and I kept drinking my coffee.

She turn to me again. “Promise you won’t tell anyone?”.

“Promise” I said without even thinking.

“Look, there are diamonds. It’s a wild diamond, there is cave down to Nevada in the desert where you can find so many of these if look very very carefully”.

“No way, that’s amazing”. I was amaze from the beauty of this little pieces of rock.

“I know”. She kept taking. “This little piece of earth will save my life. I lost my job last year, they took my home after my husband died so I don’t have anything left. I sleep on the streets and feel so ashamed of myself. I think this money will really help me start my life again”.

“I’m sure will change your life”. I smiled at her and I realised how beautiful this woman was. She was around her 50s but her smile and her gestures looked so genuine.

“Here, take this”. She handed to me this little black notebook. “You’ll find everything here. I wrote the way to get to the cave and also some names of restaurants I liked along the way”. She laughed.

“Are you sure? You might want to keep it for the next time you go there”.

“There is not going to be a next time”. She smiled again and she head out of the cafe. “Good luck”.

With the notebook in my backpack I walked to the beach. I sat on the sand, the weather was perfect, not too hot, windy enough to make me sweat and the water was clear and beautiful.

After a swim I decided to have a look at this notebook. I opened it and while I was reading I realised it was just a recipes book that she wrote. There were some names of restaurants but there were no map for the cave, of course. I don’t know why I believed that story about the cave, it sounded too much a magical story. I enjoyed tho. I love food and I love cooking and baking. I think making a cake is the most perfect thing you can do, is so mathematically perfect. If you put the wrong amount of ingredient you screw up all the recipe. I kept reading and in one of the last pages I found something. I found a phone number. No name, no description, just a number.

My question was, what she want me to do with that? I needed to know, my curiosity was exploding in me. I called the number but nobody replied, obviously.

I spent couple of days trying to not think about that notebook. I took a flight to San Francisco to visit the city, I spent the night in Hostel and again I bought another flight to San Diego. Once in San Diego I slept in a more expensive hotel just because I needed a long and warm shower and I needed a long sleep with no interruptions. I was laying in this soft mattress covered with linen sheets and I decided to have a look at the notebook again.

I kept reading the recipes more detailed so that I could find something that could help me understand why that lady left me that little black notebook.

At some point I found it ! There was a name and an address after one of the recipes, 1419 Westwood boulevard, LA. I had to go. gnar i ,I bought a flight and I was there the day after. I took a taxi until that addrress, this house was incredibly beautiful, a little cottage in the middle of LA, a little piece of heaven. I rang the bell this old man open the door.

"Hi". He was staring at me, he looked up and than down to my hands, to the notebook. He knew why I was there. "I'm Luke. Come inside, she was my mother".

I knew there was something more about that notebook. It turns out that the lady owner of the notebook was dead since 1935 in Germany, she was a chef so thats why the recipes. She died during the war, shot in the head by a german soldier. her father worked in the mines and became rich because he had found the diamonds that she had shown me in the wooden box. I couldn't believe I had spoken to her, he was dead.

Luke told me that he was waiting for someone to find this notebook, he had been looking for it for years because it was the only thing he had left of his mother and he had lost it when he was deported to America in 1936.

He gave me a wooden box in his hands and said "This is to thank you and to make you understand how important it was that you brought this notebook back to me, another person probably would have thrown it in the trash.

In the box there was a small stone all dirty and looking closely I realized it was something more, it was a diamond that will probably be worth 20,000 dollars.

I don't know what happened and I don't know why it happened to me but what I do know is that the best thing you can do is always follow your instinct and never get scared of something uncertain.

I was looking for happiness at the beginning of this trip and I think I found it. Luke's face makes me happy, knowing that he's in peace now makes me happy. My trip was just started but I was already more satisfy than when I left home.