Dumb Luck

Hiking in a three-piece suit wasn’t one of Elena’s best ideas but the city had felt all too imposing after another day of judgmental stares and prying questions. She’d meant to go home and spend the evening the way she’d spent the last three. Bundled up on her couch in a too cold apartment, searching for jobs with the eviction notice glaring at her from the coffee table.

Instead, she found herself trekking up the side of the mountain, cursing under her breath at the way the moist air and cheap polyester suit clung to her skin. She’d long since shrugged out of the jacket and carried it in one hand, her knuckles white and the fabric wrinkling under her grip.

One of the jacket’s sleeves caught on a bush and she gritted her teeth, tugging hard until the jacket fell free. She grimaced at the thorns embedded in the material but didn’t remove them, only kept walking up the uneven path.

At least her shoes were up to the challenge. A pair of worn black sneakers that had seen better days but, with some polish, had at least looked somewhat presentable.

Compared to the cheap, secondhand suit with a not-so-subtle hole in one jacket pocket, the sneakers almost appeared sophisticated. She doubted they’d helped much though, even if anyone had managed to look past the state of her clothing. Her efforts had earned her little more than a few side eyes and raised eyebrows as she sat for each interview.

Elena huffed, kicking at a loose stone in her path. It bounced along ahead of her, rolling back to meet her when it didn’t get caught on the boulders and crevices lining the track.

“This is so stupid,” she muttered, dragging the back of her hand over her forehead.

A distant rumble of thunder made her pause and she looked up, her heart falling as she noted the dark clouds that had drawn in while she walked.

The mountain trail she was one wasn't the longest but walking the whole way took at least an hour on a good day. It curled up the side of the mountain to a tiny plateau that overlooked the city before winding back down. A familiar trek, even though she didn’t hike it often. She knew it well enough that she was aware she was closer to the plateau than the parking lot at the bottom.

Worrying her lip as another crack of thunder sounded, Elena quickened her pace. The plateau, at least, had a few boulders she could shelter under until the storm passed.

As she scrambled up the path, the rain started. She yelped, tugging her jacket over her head in an attempt to shelter from the piercing cold pinpricks of the water soaking through her shirt.

The path thinned a little, winding around the very edge of the mountain before it opened up onto the plateau. With the plateau in sight and the rain coming down harder, Elena broke into a jog.

Her footing slipped on the slick rocks and she cursed, crashing down onto the path and tumbling toward the steep cliff. She dropped her jacket, letting the rain pelt her skin as she clawed at the mud to find purchase on one of the cracked rocks poking out of the thin trail.

The wind snagged her already battered jacket, yanking it away from her and dropping it over the mountainside. Elena gulped as she watched it go and, unable to find her footing, resorted to scrabbling up the final distance to flat ground on all fours.

Crawling onto the plateau, Elena clambered back to her feet, ducked her head, and raced toward the largest rocks standing near the edge of the outcrop. She ducked beneath them, curling up as small as possible and pressing her back against the cold stone.

Without the trees sheltering the path the wind was colder and the thunder echoed off the rocks with a resounding crack. It was drier though, even with the mud and rain soaking her clothing.

Knees pulled up to her chest, Elena pushed her sodden hair out of her face and squinted through the rain at the vague, shadowy outline of the city beneath her. The glass skyscrapers glinted eerily in a flash of lightning and she could almost hear them rattle at the crack of thunder that followed before the city was swallowed by the rain.

Alone on the side of the mountain, Elena buried her head in her arms to wait out the weather. “I only wanted some air…”

*

Cold, wet, and miserable, the trek down the mountain was slick and treacherous. Already soaked through, Elena waited until the worst of the storm passed before descending, barely noticing the continuing spray of light rain against her clothing.

She didn’t dare tuck her hands under her arms, not trusting her footing on the wet trail. As it was, she flailed now and then and her palms stung with the grazes she’d accumulated from too many sharp rocks. Still, she didn’t complain. Too tired to muster energy to grumble at her wretched luck.

It was fortunate, she mused, that the storm hadn’t been worse or lasted for longer than half an hour. As it was, she knew she’d be forced to battle against a bad cold for the next few days. Her nose was already running and her occasional, disgruntled sniffing sounded all too miserable.

The path evened out beneath her feet for the last stretch before the tiny parking lot. Elena continued shuffling along, finally tucking her hands under her arms to hunch in on herself.

Everything ached and her ruined suit clung to her skin, her sneakers squelching with every step. Even her tie, hanging loose as it was, felt constricting. Too tight despite the open buttons of her collar and the crooked knot she’d long since tugged out of its neat place against her throat.

As she rounded the corner to her car, her toe caught on a loose stone. She tumbled forward, crashing inelegantly into the undergrowth at the side of the path, barely managing to free her hands from beneath her arms to catch herself. Exhausted, she sat back on her heels, half-heartedly wiping the fresh mud on her hands onto her trousers.

A ringing phone caught her attention. She reached for her side to check her pockets only to remember the only pockets in the suit had been in her jacket. Her cellphone, wallet, and car keys had all been crammed into the only zippered pocket on the inside of the suit.

“Perfect,” she mumbled, slowly getting back on her feet. “I guess I’m walking home too…”

Elena pushed her hair out of her eyes, her fingers catching on the tangled strands. The ringing stopped, then started again a moment later and she frowned, squinting at the gloomy undergrowth. A few feet away, her jacket was tangled up on a prickly thorn bush, sodden and muddy but intact.

Surprised, she shuffled over. With numb fingers, she tugged the jacket off the bush and fumbled with the zippered pocket to retrieve her phone. As soon as she answered, her roommate’s worried voice overtook the line, raised and frantic as she lectured about cold food and missed calls. Elena barely heard any of it.

The bush her jacket had been resting on fell from its place tucked between two rocks, falling harmlessly to her feet to reveal a deep crevice in the stone. A leather briefcase was tucked inside, the material was covered in mildew and rodent droppings.

Bemused, Elena tugged it out, shaking it to rid it of most of the debris. It had once been pretty, she thought, but age and the elements—even under cover—had damaged the leather irreparably. The locks had broken at some point too and they fell open under her inquisitive touch.

She opened it warily, expecting to find nothing but bugs inside and fully prepared to fling it away as far as possible. The sight of several rows of hundred dollar bills pulled her up short and she stared for a long moment before her roommate’s loud screech in her ear drew her attention back to the phone.

“-even listening to me?”

Elena cleared her throat, still staring at the full briefcase. “Y-yeah, I’m listening. I’ll be home soon, I just- Actually, Kelly, I have a question. If you happened to stumble across a briefcase filled with money, would you keep it or turn it in?”

“Depends.” Her roommate paused. “Where’d you find it?”

“Buried on a mountain?”

Curious, Elena rummaged through the pockets on the inside of the lid. She found a thin, yellowed envelope and turned it over in her hand to find both sides were blank.

Holding her phone between her ear and shoulder, Elena wiped her muddy hands on her trousers and pulled the letter out. Careful not to tear the aged paper, she unfolded it and blinked at the typed font that greeted her.

The briefcase wasn’t as old as it looked then.

“Buried on a- Where-” Karina paused, her worry evident even before she spoke again. “Wait, were you hiking in the storm? Are you okay?”

Elena hummed, noncommittally, and squinted at the writing. It was faded in places. The paper lined with creases and eaten in places by bugs but most of the letter was intact. Enough that she could just about make out some of the words.

“Do you need me to come get you?” Kelly asked. “Elena?”

“Is it wishful thinking to find a note that says… ‘Congrats! You found this so it’s yours’?” Elena asked, gaping at the few words she could see. “I can’t read the rest of it.”

Kelly paused. “How long were you out in the storm?”

“The whole time?” Elena admitted, tearing her gaze off the letter and back to the bills stacked inside the briefcase. “Do you think I died up there?”

“What?” Kelly asked. “No! Why would you-”

Elena huffed. “Yeah, you’re right. I hurt too much.”

Kelly hesitated. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Carefully tucking the letter back into the envelope, Elena worried the inside of her cheek. She could be dreaming, even if her bones were aching. If she was, nobody would miss an old briefcase anyway, letter announcing her ownership of it or not. She still hesitated a little as she shut the lid, trailing her fingers over the once smooth leather.

“Yeah, actually,” Elena said. A disbelieving smile tugged at her lips as she studied the briefcase. “I’m okay.”