A Forgotten Blessing

Slamming the phone receiver back onto the base, Aimee growled in frustration. Fortunately for her, the office was currently empty and Aimee didn’t have to explain herself to anyone’s questioning glance. Her poor debit card stared up at her from the desk, the numbers faded as the glossy silver ink had long worn away from frequent use. Aimee knew the number by heart, of course, but when she had to give the number to someone over the phone for a payment, it always felt more comfortable with the card in her view - just in case a fluke of dyslexia or a memory lapse somehow made her give the wrong digits.

That debit card was currently screaming at her, the abuse of having to set up yet another collections account weekly payment becoming the icy balm to an otherwise decent morning. Yeah, she did this to herself with some horribly-timed decisions but that did not make the current situation any less painful. On the bright side, she no longer would have to worry about any wage garnishments or having to deal with a court and a judge.

Aimee’s credit score had tanked, just when she was beginning to want to buy a house. Her bank account and savings had only managed to grow a little over the past year and now Aimee was looking at using up all she had to try and climb out of the hole she now found herself in.

Aimee just wanted to cry, to pause life and curl up beneath her desk and just let all the tears out until she had let all her angst and frustration out. Instead, however, Aimee slid her debit card off the desk and back into her purse, reverently snapping her wallet shut and pulling the zipper of her purse closed. A sudden influx of sound just outside her office door snapped her out of her funk, somewhat at least, and Aimee quickly hid her purse away in the drawer of her desk. Clients never waited and for today, they would be the distraction she needed to keep herself somewhat sane.

By the end of the day, clients gone and coworkers leaving, Aimee could almost say she had forgotten the fact that she was essentially broke… and would be for the next year as all the payments she had agreed to were withdrawn from her bank account. “Almost forgot” was because she was now starving and until she could sit down and work out the extremely frugal budget for the next year, stopping at a drive-thru on the way home was not an option. And, damn it, a double cheeseburger sounded really good to her empty stomach.

Aimee retrieved her purse from her desk and double-checked that she had her keys before locking and closing her office door. After clocking out, Aimee ducked out the back door to walk around the building. The gravel slid under her feet, something that made her happy she never bothered to wear anything but comfortable sneakers into the office. Keys in hand, Aimee pressed the button on her key fob to disarm the alarm and unlock the door. With only two other cars aside from her own in the small parking lot, she felt comfortable enough to watch the traffic on the busy road alongside the office rather than worry about any possible threats of danger.

With Aimee caught up in the thoughts running rampant in her mind and her eyes on the cars speeding by, when she opened the door to her car, she almost missed the little black object that was haphazardly laying on the hood of her car. Aimee had sat in the driver’s seat, inserted the key in the ignition and started the engine before ever looking out her windshield. When she did, though, she stared at the black square in complete confusion.

“What…” the word automatically slipped out as she sat back in the seat and glanced out the windows all around her.

No one was in the vicinity, at least not that she could see. All those memes on Facebook came to mind, about human trafficking and the different ploys people used to catch someone unawares to kidnap them. Double and triple checking that there were no mysterious vehicles waiting or strangers lurking anywhere near her car, Aimee finally opened the door to step out. It was just enough to reach around and grab what turned out to be a little black notebook. Snatching it up, she was back in the driver’s seat with the door closed and all the locks engaged for protection.

Aimee felt like a Nervous Nelly, laughing at herself as she blindly reached to adjust the air conditioning and volume level of the radio while she sat there. The notebook stole only a moment more of her attention as she flipped through the pages to see if there was any identifying information inside that she could use to return the notebook back to its rightful owner. The pages floated past, nothing popping out to capture her attention.

Blank pages? Weird.

Aimee tossed the little black notebook into the center console of her car and put the car into reverse, finally backing out of the parking space to leave the lot. Traffic was slowing down, it was well past the after school rush and just before most of the warehouses had their shift changes.

By the time Aimee finally got home, she was exhausted. It never ceased to amaze her how her energy could completely disappear in that fifteen minute drive, but it did. Every day. After gathering all her things, Aimee locked up the car and headed inside. The chime of her alarm system prompted just enough of a spurt of energy that she managed to enter her passcode like she only had three seconds left before a bomb went off.

From there, Aimee sat down at her kitchen table. Still dressed for work, because she knew it was the only way to keep her mind semi-focused on the task at hand, she pulled a pen out from her purse and grabbed a random junk mail envelope to write on. First things first, she started by adding up what her usual monthly income was. Two jobs and two different pay grades meant the income wasn’t a fixed amount, something that frustrated her in the moment. When she started to list out all of her expenses, she ran out of room on the envelope.

“That’s pretty sad, girlie.” Grumbling to herself, that little notebook drew her attention to it. It had been empty, right? She should use it, right?

Picking it up, she flipped through the pages a little more slowly this time. Double checking that the pages were empty, she figured it was Fate. She started copying over some of the information she already had jotted out on the envelope, taking care to keep her handwriting a little neater. It was a nice notebook and she, for some reason, wanted to keep it as clean and polished as she could.

Roughly twenty minutes later, Aimee sat back in frustration. Unless she wanted to live like a pauper, she needed to get a third job to make ends meet until these collections balances were due. Tears welled in her eyes, the simple fact she had no one to turn to for help weighing on her shoulders like it had never done before. A numb, disconnected feeling washed over her. At that moment, the only thing she could think to do was pick up the envelope with her messy scribbles from before and open it. It was junk mail but maybe it offered something… trivial distraction while she attempted to blink back the tears that were pointless to shed.

With no recognition of the sender’s name on the outside of the envelope, Aimee slid her finger under the seal and pried it open. The sound of tearing paper was the only thing in the room aside from her soft sniffle. When she finally got the envelope open, she reached inside and pulled out the paper. There were no glossy little fliers or inserts falling out, which seemed somehow disappointing to her. The envelope discarded on the table, Aimee unfolded the sheets of paper and skimmed over the words. Neatly printed on what seemed like some elegant letterhead, it looked like it came from a lawyer’s office.

“Oh, hell,” she thought. “Please tell me I’m not being sued.”

Her heart nearly slammed to a stop, fingers developing a nervous tremble as she quickly flipped through the pages. Aimee was looking for any fancy words or something that would easily jump out at her to tell her what was going on. The last page made her stop. Blank for most of it, the bottom piece was a check. Her name, full name that she rarely used and she was pretty certain no one she talked to even knew, was printed on the Pay To line. The amount was…

“Twenty-thousand dollars?”

Aimee’s own voice made her jump, or maybe it was the croaking sound of it rather than the usual tone. She flipped back to the first page and to actually read it. A class-action lawsuit Aimee vaguely remembered coming across in her email years ago had finally paid off and this was her portion.

Not being the first time some random fake class action lawsuit letter had come through the mail for her, Aimee grabbed her phone and called the number listed at the top with the names of the supposed lawyers associated with the firm. Just minutes later, it was confirmed.

The check was real.

Twenty-thousand dollars. More than enough to pay off the crippling debt she was in.

Aimee cried, tears of joy this time rather than frustration and fear.

Then, she ordered herself a pizza while jotting down on a clean crisp new page in the little black notebook she had found the schedule for the next few days and all the phone calls she would need to make to get all her bills paid once the money cleared in her account.