One Night in a Strange City

A Blast from the past

Chapter 2

“What is this?” She closed the book, inspected it and saw an inscription in the leather at the back. ‘Property of J.J Edgar’
“This belonged to mom” she whispered. She picked up the book and made her way out of the room. “Need to get the lights on in this house.” Making her way down the stairs, she heard the doorbell. Frozen on the steps, the bell rung again. She knows she told no one she was moving here so who could it be? She makes her way to the door and peeps through the window to see a man, in his mid-20s standing on the porch. “Hello?” she answers. “Excuse me, but I was told that the house would have a new tenant and I’m here to help out with the electricity.” The man answered. Reluctant, she opens the door, gives the man a full look down and invites him in. She looks at him as he stands in the corridor. “He’s kind of cute” she says softly, giggling. Reaching out her hand, she introduced herself, “Hi, I’m Abigail Edgar and you are...?” “Abby? As in Jays daughter Abigail?” Abby looked at him a bit confused and before she could ask how he knew who she was, he told her who he was and that they knew each other before she moved away. “I don’t have much memory of back then so excuse me if I don’t remember you” she apologized. He turned back and said that he will turn the power on for her. “if you need help with anything, just give a yell. I live right next door” He made his way down the hall and opened a door which she assumed was the door to the basement. She turned to the mirror behind her and saw that she looked a mess from her nap and inaudibly threw a little fit. Straightening up, she made her way to the kitchen and poof!! The lights went on. As she was making her way to the kitchen, she heard him say loudly, “I don’t know why your mom had the circuit breaker moved from the kitchen to the basement in the first place, but everything should work perfectly now. There’s not much cleaning to do since there was a cleaning crew here yesterday” “I would offer you something to drink but all I have is water” she said jokingly.

He smiled and she noticed he had a slight dimple on his left cheek. He extended his willingness to help once more before making his way to the door. She politely thanked him for his kindness and closed the door. “Are you mad?? You barely have food in your stomach and you go checking out the first guy that talks to you” looking at the clock, “Nine o clock” walked out of the kitchen and took a look at the living room, sighed, “Nope. That’s for tomorrow.” She stared at the book she left on the counter, picked it up and went upstairs.

After showering and finding a comfortable seat in the living room, she picked up the book and opened it. There were scribblings she couldn’t make out for it was written in a language she didn’t understand. A picture fell out of the book when she turned the page. Nine people. Her mom, a woman and seven Asian men. “I wonder who these people are?” looked at the back to see if anything was written on it... Nothing.

Next page
One line written, right in the center,
“If I had known that things would turn out the way they did, I never would’ve gone to Korea.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked aloud, closing the book. “Who in the hell starts a diary off that way???” she asked annoyed. She opened the book and turned a page. Right at the top, written in her mother’s handwriting..

“A chance meeting”