MAKE IT HAPPEN

It was beautiful sunny day and Jenny couldn’t wait to start her work break. Because rather than sit in a smelly office canteen, she was able to go to the park and read a nice book on a bench. Her favourite books were adventure and love novels. On a warm day like this it was easy to imagine, that you travel together with your heroine to Italy or France. Travel to Europe was always Jenny’s dream. But with the small salary of hers, she was never able to fulfil it. Everything she earned went to her savings account, that at some time in the future, she could afford a house of her own. To get there, she had to transfer big amounts of money each month. What’s left, had to be divided to buy travel ticket, food and pay rent – it wasn’t much left. Each quarter bosses kept promising bonus, so Jenny kept dreaming to get it and finally go on some small trip, but that never happened. All she had left – to travel in her mind. Local librarians knew her by name, as she kept coming for new books. Today she rushed to her favourite spot in the park - massive concrete bench, hidden between tall green hedges, because she couldn’t wait to read how her book ends. It wasn’t many pages left, so she will have some time for daydreaming in the sun. Her favourite spot was empty. She placed her coffee cup on the arm rest, and opened her book. Pages flew fast, her heroine got a happy ending and proposal in Florence.

“Ah, Italy”, daydreamed Jenny with her eyes closed, trying to catch sun on her face, “just imagine going all those places...”

She really enjoyed the book, but didn’t realised, that so little pages was left. It was still a lot of time before her break ends and she didn’t want to go back to office. She opened her eyes, sipped coffee. Park was full, but she was sitting in very secluded space. Hedges and bench shape partly hid her from the rest of the area. She looked around, sun was shining through hedges gaps. Hedges were cut long time ago and were already loosing tidy shape. Bench concrete had many cracks, but was still very comfortable. It was made with large arm rests that widened up to serve like a tray. Underneath it created thick ornament with very long triangular holes. Jenny was staring at those holes and noticed, that one of the triangles is way more narrow that the others. She leaned closer. Her eyes wasn’t tricking her – there was something flat on a side of one triangle, making it look narrower. She tried to touch what could it be and fingers felt smooth leather surface. Jenny got closer and tried to pull it out. There it was – hard cover black leather notebook with elastic closure and bookmark ribbon.

“Hmm, is it someone’s secret place to hide and write their journal? Or someone forgot it, and next person just put it into the arm rest to protect the notebook from weather damage?” Jenny carefully opened the notebook and checked for name or address at the beginning and end of the notebook, slid through the pages, just looking for clues. It looked like someone’s feelings journal – all text written by same handwriting in blue ink. Some text was smudged or melted by water drops – most likely tears. Means whoever was writing this – was deeply upset. Jenny didn’t feel confident to read such a personal thing, but when she opened very first page – it started with a sentence “To whoever that going to read this.”

“Strange, does it mean, I’m expected to read this? And it doesn’t matter who will find this? So mysterious.” Jenny straight away started reading from the beginning.

“To whoever that going to read this. I am not sure how I suppose to start this, but my therapist told me to write a letter to my sadness. So there I am. Writing to complete stranger. Revealing my most intimate parts of my life. With hope that it will help me to continue living in peace…”

Suddenly Jenny’s phone vibrated. She always had a reminder on, to come back to work on time, because books would pull her brain so deeply in the story, that whole world would disappear. She put black notebook into her purse and rushed to work.

All day she couldn‘t focus, just kept thinking about the notebook. Who might have written it and why. It was more enchanting that any book she was waiting to read. The second Jenny came home, she dropped all her stuff, reheated some food, grabbed notebook and started reading thirsty page by page.

It was a very sad life story of one woman. She was lucky enough to meet a love of her life. They had many dreams for the future – start a family, travel a world, but both were very poor. Sadly many dreams needed to be saved for. They finally saved a start payment to buy a house, but only a month after moving in, theirs and neighbours house was gone in fire. They lost everything. Due to lack of money, their house wasn‘t insured from fire. They got back to square one. But what matters – they were together. They dreamed to become parents. But she just couldn‘t get pregnant. They tried and tried. Sadly their pockets weren‘t deep enough for fertility treatments. Again, main thing – they had each other. But one day she got a call from police – her husband was hit by a car. Driver fled and accident was fatal. Her world completely collapsed. She couldn‘t deal with it, became suicidal, depressed. Finally became unemployed and homeless. Owner of a dog shelter noticed her sleeping on the street, invited her in and asked to help with the dogs in return of food and room to sleep. Caring for the dogs helped to overcome depression. While being creative, she started making little items for pets, and had ideas for some gadgets. Her friend – shelter owner became her business partner. Few dog care startups later became big businesses. She finally became rich. Very rich, but she was poor for the things she wanted the most. She had all the money, but she wasn‘t able to buy more time with her loved one.

Story was so sad, that Jenny was tearing up time to time. And while she moved get eyes lower to read next line of the story – the strangest thing happened. It wasn‘t the story anymore. It was written by same person, same ink, same style, but it was instructions, seamlessly incorporated into the story text:

„If you read that much, you must be a compassionate dreamer. And I want to help your dreams come true. Take the key from the back cover and bring it to this address...“.

After that, story continued. She wrote how she dreamed to travel with her husband, and what to see. And which of these places she visited with her best friend. But her grief and sorrow didn’t disappear. Lately she became depressed again. Her therapist recommended to write her feelings into a notebook and get rid of it.

Jenny finished reading. She was feeling the sadness with all her heart. And hoped that writing helped that woman. Another thing that bugged her, was that weird secret message. She did look for the key – but there was nothing on the back cover. Not even a mark, that something was stuck on and maybe removed by someone else. Maybe key fell off in the park hedges. She checked inner front cover just in case – that’s weird. Inner lining of front and back cover didn’t match. It wasn’t same paper, different surface, different colour. That’s so odd. Jenny turned back the inner back cover and brushed surface with her fingertips. There! One small spot was uneven. She started ripping the lining and there it was! A small key, with a long number on it, was safely placed in sculpted hole of the cardboard cover and tucked with some cotton ball pieces.

Jenny couldn’t believe her eyes. It was just as mysterious as one of her favourite books. She re-read instructions and first page few more times. Just to be sure, that it is as random, as it looked and not meant for somebody else. No, it was just as simple as it can be. Just a key and address. Jenny checked the postcode – and it showed a storage unit quite close to the park. She knew, that tomorrow on her break she will go to check it out. But how to wait for tomorrow? Jenny was so full of excitement – she couldn’t sleep. She just rolled in bed all night creating million scenarios of what could happen tomorrow.

Next day Jenny barely could hold her enthusiasm till lunch. When time came, she run outside and only managed to compose herself walk in normal pace. She walked into the storage unit’s reception and gave the key to the young guy at the desk. He looked at the number, checked something at the computer and asked to follow him. There were many rooms with small containers all over the walls. After they reached the one with a number matching the key, he left her to open on her own. Jenny slowly unlocked the door and pulled out a simple brown cardboard box. She removed the lid. First there was a folded note, that read “You can’t buy many things in life, including dreams. But many dreams do need money, to be fulfilled. I hope this will help you reach your dreams. Make it happen.” Jenny’s hands started shaking – what does that mean? Underneath the note there was linen bag with wad of money. Jenny quickly turned around – there was no one watching her. She quickly counted the cash - $20,000! That was insane… Jenny smiled. She knew exactly what she’s going to do with them.

4 months later…

Regina Wallows, successful dog product entrepreneur was on the way to the park to have her coffee before the last meeting of the day. Last time she was in this city and this park was about half year ago. She was in bad place emotionally, as nothing gave her joy anymore. Only her beloved dog kept her sane. Then, her therapist offered to write letters to her husband, or herself – to put all the sadness and unspoken words in it, and bin the book. It was weird exercise. But it worked. Maybe, because she made a little addition to it. Worker from storage unit notified her, that parcel is already collected, so she hoped, that she helped someone to reach their dreams. And that felt awesome. Recently Regina gave a lot of money to charities, as helping others felt good. She found the same bench, she left her notebook at, and sat. She knew, that notebook was taken, but it was impossible not to stare at the same triangle hole. Weirdest thing was – something was still there! Regina leaned to reach and pulled small leather notebook – similar to the one she left half year ago. She opened it just to see, that it wasn’t a notebook anymore. It was transformed to a storage box, that was filled with photographs. She noticed pictures taken from places like Rome, Venice, Paris, Barcelona, Egypt and so on. And at the bottom of it, there was a note: “Thank you for making my dreams come true, Jenny”.