CHAPTER 37
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” Vincent T. Lombardi
Jack Bennett walked into his dorm room Sunday afternoon. He threw his bags on the floor and jumped horizontally on his bed, folding his blanket into a mold. He was exhausted from the game the night before and staying up late to celebrate. His parents, brother, sister-in-law, and Jack’s sister had just dropped him off back at his residence hall. Jack appreciated that his family had driven all the way up to Pennsylvania to watch him play.
The door opened and his roommate, JT, walked in. “Dude, where were you last night?”
Jack grabbed the football from his final high school game off his windowsill and tossed it up in the air. “I told you, my family was here. I was with them all weekend.”
“I have a package for you,” JT said tossing Jack the box.
Jack caught the box and sat up. “This better be my new cell phone!” he shouted. “It’s taken forever to get!” He started tearing open the box immediately.
“You’re the only one I know that dropped their cell phone in the urinal while taking a leak.”
Jack laughed. “Shut-up.”
“You also dropped your phone getting in your car and slammed the door on it shattering it to pieces.”
“They’re called accidents for a reason,” said Jack. “Besides, it’s not like anyone needed to get a hold of me this weekend.” Jack logged on to his MacBook Pro and activated his phone through the Sprint website.
“What happens to all the texts and calls you got while you didn’t have a phone for two weeks?”
“They’re long lost,” he answered. Jack’s new phone rang. “First call.”
“When you hang up, change that ringer,” demanded his roommate.
“Hello?” answered Jack.
“Can I please speak to Jack Bennett?” the woman on the other end said.
“Yeah, this is he.”
“Jack, my name is Carol. I’m the Guest Service Manager at the Courtyard State College. Housekeeping turned in your book that was left in one of our guest rooms this morning.”
“My what? I didn’t stay at your hotel.”
“My apologizes, Mr. Bennett. It listed your name and phone number on the cover page. I assumed it belonged to you.”
“Can I come get it later?”
“Yes, sir. Just come to the front desk.” Jack hung up the phone.
“Change that ringer,” JT said again. “Nobody wants to hear that crap every time your phone rings.”
“That was the weirdest phone call,” said Jack. “The Courtyard Marriott just called to tell me I left a book in a room. We didn’t stay there last night.”
“It’s probably some crazy fan. As soon as you go pick it up, you’re gonna get jumped,” his roommate laughed.
“You’re right,” said Jack. “Let’s go.”
“Why do I have to go? “
“You have to go in to get the book so I don’t get jumped.”
Jack and JT drove to the Courtyard hotel. JT complained that the front desk would ask for identification. JT was a chronic complainer, another freshman starter on the football team. Jack often wondered where JT possibly learned to be the strong defensive lineman he was when he was quite weak minded. When they got to the hotel, Jack left JT in the car, under the carport while he walked inside to the front desk.
“Oh my gosh,” the woman said. “You’re Jack Bennett!”
Jack glanced at her nametag. “Are you the Carol I talked to on the phone?”
“Yes, sir,” she smiled. Carol had to be in her mid-fifties, at least.
Jack ignored her. “You said you have something that you think belongs to me?” Carol reached under the desk and pulled out a black hard cover spiral bound journal and handed it to Jack. “That’s not mine. I’ve never seen it before.”
“It’s definitely yours,” she said. “Not that we read much, just a few entries. Even if you’ve never seen it before, you need to read it. Someone created something pretty special for you.”
Jack opened the book to the first page. The date on the top right hand corner was dated July 1, 2010. He walked over to a chair in the lobby and read the entry.
Dear J, I miss you. It’s so hard, knowing you’re right next door to me at this very moment. It hurts me so much that we’re not friends anymore. To be honest, I’m not even sure why. It’s almost like you intentionally tried to push me away. I’ve tried to come up with so many reasons why I wasn’t good enough to be your friend. I think about you every second of every day. I think about why you ever became my friend to begin with. I wonder if I was wrong, were we ever friends? I hold on to this crazy belief that you did what you did not to be selfish but you somehow thought you were doing it for me.
Jack leapt to the front desk. “Carol,” he said urgently, “I need to know who was the guest registered to the room where this was found?”
“I can’t tell you,” she said shaking her head. “I’m sorry. We have to keep our guests’ privacy.”
“This is important,” pleaded Jack. “You don’t understand. I think that someone very important to me was here, in this hotel and my phone was broken and I think she left this because she probably tried to call me and I didn’t have a phone and she is probably driving back to North Carolina hating me.”
“Is this a love story?”
Jack took a deep breath. “It’s a story about a boy and a girl and right now it doesn’t have a happy ending.”
Carol looked at him and began typing fast on her keyboard. “The room was registered to a Kate Mason.”
Jack turned in a circle; his feet felt weightless under his strong body. “Elizabeth,” he whispered rubbing his forehead.
JT came charging through the circular lobby door. “Are you alright, man?”
“No,” swallowed Jack. “I didn’t have a choice! They said it was the right thing to do! They made me leave.”
“Who did?”
Jack shoved the book into his friend’s chest. “Her parents.”
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