HER | ✓

⍣Twenty-Four⍣

Eight years ago in the late summer of two thousand and five, a young man around the age of twenty five worked at the ozarks camping and fishing resort. He was enjoying his idle morning when a woman called and requested a phone number be delivered to a man he didn't know. He didn't want to do it. His mornings were for him and for him only. But he felt a sense of duty to make sure the number got to the desired person.

Maybe it was the sense of urgency her voice carried that made him want to get this done right. It may have been the only thing he ever did get right, aside from placing keys on the right hook and so on. He would get it done this time.

After he wrote the number and message down he picked up his breakfast burrito to take another bite. At the same time the manager's dog came ripping through the office and slammed him against the desk, smashing the burrito into his shirt.

"Crud Sadie! Look what you did!" He pulled his shirt out from his chest examining the mess. "Now I gotta change my shirt you bad dog."

Sadie was unaffected by his words, wagged her tail and ran in circles. He sighed and went into the backroom to change his shirt, oblivious that the young man he needed to deliver the note to was going to walk in.

When he resurfaced, wearing a clean shirt, the buildings door was slamming shut and a key laid on the counter with the numbers 1-8 printed on both sides.

"Eighteen. Room eighteen." He was trying to figure out why the number stuck out to him. And then he remembered. He picked up and the paper and ran through the doors.

"Hey!" He ran yelling. The man was sliding into his car. "Hey!" The door slammed shut.

The worker waved his arms around in the air as the car drove away. He ran a good half mile following him but he couldn't keep up with a car. He stopped and hunched over his knees, trying to catch his breathe. He watched as the car drove away and a cloud of dust blew up behind it. Then he looked at the paper that was still clutched in his hand, read it over again, and decided to let it go. It was a lost cause to him. The wind will carry it wherever it wants or needs to go, he thought. Little did he know, that paper could've changed a lot of lives. And so could have he, had it not been for the rowdy dog.

THE END

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AN: And that is that. Anything can happen at any moment and change things. Even something so small as a dog bumping into the worker. Had the dog not bumped him and made him get food all over his shirt, he would've delivered the paper to Clayton. That simple. I do hope you enjoyed this book and that you continue to enjoy my future works. I'd be very honored to you see you guys again. :)