Magic Lessons

A balloon with the words “Happy 10th Birthday!” swayed above Jasmine’s head as two dozen eager faces leaned to watch her open her last present. She fished through a bag of tissue paper, hoping to find the unicorn necklace she had been talking about for weeks. Her heart sank when she pulled out yet another nail polish kit.

She held in a sigh as she added it carefully to the mound of presents. Too bad she hated having anything on her fingernails!

She caught Tiffany’s eye through the crowd of classmates and struggled to force a smile in thanks.

When Jasmine returned home from the party, she dropped her gifts by the door and threw herself on the couch with a huff, turning on the TV.

“What do you think you’re doing?” her dad asked.

Jasmine shrugged, turning back to the TV.

“I don’t think so!” Her dad snatched the controller and snapped off the TV. “All you ever do is watch shows. Go outside and play with the gifts from your friends. Use your imagination for once!”

He grabbed the first two presents he saw – the nail art kit and a lip balm set – and shoved them at Jasmine. “Go!”

She was too stunned by his outburst to argue so she trudged outside to the back yard.

What was she even supposed to do out here? She used to love playing in the yard that stretched out for half an acre to meet the pine forest. But she’d had no interest in doing anything fun ever since her best friend, Unmi, had moved away after both girls’ fathers lost their jobs at the electrical plant last year. Now she had no best friend and was constantly afraid her family would have to move away, too, leaving behind her childhood home.

She kicked at a pinecone. It skittered across the pavement, bouncing into the grass and scaring a squirrel into a tree.

Despite her bad mood, Jasmine giggled and watched the squirrel climb upward, chittering at her in rage. She was pretty sure this was the same squirrel who had stolen her chips at last month’s family barbeque, so he had it coming. She wondered absently why she never saw him with any squirrel friends. Maybe he was lonely, too.

She walked toward the tree where her nemesis was hiding in the upper branches. But as she approached, she noticed something inside a knot in the tree.

Curious, Jasmine peered inside. It looked like something leather. She reached in, trying not to think of spiders and other creepy, crawly things, and her fingers clasped something hard.

She pulled out a small, black leather-bound notebook with a pen clipped to it. On the front, engraved in gold, read the words: The Magic Notebook.

“What in the world?” she gaped at the book. Now, this was an interesting present!

Just then, an acorn hit her in the head. Her eyes shot up, and she spied her archenemy several branches above, shaking his little squirrel fist at her.

She scowled at the creature.

“Do you know anything about this?” she asked, waving the book at him.

The squirrel scolded her back and scampered farther up the tree, presumably for more ammunition.

Jasmine was too intrigued by the notebook to wage war, though. She tucked it in her pocket and wandered deeper into the woods toward her favorite meadow. It would be the perfect place to explore a magic journal! As she walked, she felt something familiar ignite inside her. Interest? Excitement? Imagination? She wasn’t sure what to call it. But it felt like a long-lost friend.

When she reached the meadow, she sat down on her favorite rock and opened the notebook. On the inside was an inscription: Never forget, you may be small, but you are mighty.

“Well, that’s a lie,” she rolled her eyes, thinking of the last year. “Now, what should I draw?”

A bird landed in the meadow a few feet from her.

Perfect! she thought.

Jasmine sketched a bird almost identical to the one in the meadow, but at the end, she drew a little heart on its wing. With a smile, she added the last flick of her pen and sat back to admire her creation.

Suddenly, a whooshing noise made her look up from the book. Bands of spinning light like a mini tornado were twirling before her, and with a “Vwoooop!” out from the vortex popped a bird with a heart on its wing! She looked down at her notebook, and sure enough, the heart looked exactly like the one she’d drawn. Her masterpiece had come to life!

“What in the world?” Jasmine yelped for the second time that day, almost falling off the rock.

Had that just happened? Had her bird drawing come to life? She bent to pick up the notebook she’d dropped and again read the title – The Magic Notebook.

It really was magic!

She decided to do an experiment. She drew a simple rock.

Once again, there was a whooshing, whirring tornado of light, and out popped the rock she had drawn.

Jasmine giggled.

It worked!

This time she drew a unicorn. A unicorn pet would be the best!

But nothing happened.

Had she broken the notebook already?

She tried again, drawing a leprechaun next to a bowl of colorful cereal.

This time a cereal sprung out of the whirring light vortex.

“Oh!” Realization dawned on Jasmine. “It has to be real things!” she whispered to herself. “It can’t be imaginary creatures.”

She spent the next several hours drawing everything she could think of – from forest animals to the necklace she had wanted for her birthday.

When evening set in and it became too dark to see – and she accidentally drew a deer with a tail on its leg – she decided it was time to head home.

She shoved the journal in her pocket and ran all the way back to the house. When she got there, she could hear raised voices coming from the living room.

“We have to move, Karen! We’re behind on the mortgage. If we can’t get $20,000 by next week, we’ll be evicted!”

“There has to be something we can do, Jack. This is our family home!”

Panic rose in Jasmine’s throat, and tears sprang to her eyes. It was really happening!

Quietly, she bolted for her room. When her parents called her for dinner, she told them she didn’t feel well, and she lay awake late into the night, thinking of how they might be able to get $20,000. But she couldn’t help thinking she was too young to make a difference.

Then the line in the journal came to mind: Never forget, you may be small, but you are mighty.

Lies! She couldn’t make a difference. Could she?

And then it came to her! The Magic Notebook! She could draw $20,000!

She couldn’t do it now or the whooshing sounds of magic would wake her parents, but she’d be sure to do it first thing in the morning!

She finally fell asleep dreaming of angry squirrels and magic money.

The next morning Jasmine was up with the sun. She grabbed the notebook and drew a $20,000 bill. She held her breath, waiting for the swirling, whirling vortex.

But nothing happened.

She frowned. Money wasn’t imaginary – so why was it not showing up?

A $20,000 bill must not exist! she realized.

A quick search on her school laptop confirmed her suspicion. The highest printed bill was a $100 bill.

Jasmine did the calculations. She would have to draw a $100 bill 200 times!

This is best done outside! she thought, not wanting her parents to walk in on a whirlwind spewing money into her room!

She ran to the meadow and began drawing – first one $100 bill, then a second, then a third.

Vwoop! Vwoop! Vwoop! The little whirlwinds spat money all over the meadow.

Halfway through her drawing session, Jasmine felt her wrist starting to cramp. She took a break and looked about the meadow. It seemed alive with birds, a few of which she had drawn. And then came a squeaking she recognized.

“Did you follow me here?” Jasmine frowned at the little squirrel, who was scolding her from several feet away. “Don’t you have friends of your own?”

He turned around and flicked his tail at her.

“That’s so rude!” she gasped and spun around to show him her own backside.

The squirrel scolded her again before running back into the forest.

Jasmine sat back down and resumed drawing, feeling a little bad for turning the lonely squirrel away. But she forgot all feelings but excitement as she finished sketching the last bill.

$20,000! She’d done it! She collected the bills and headed back to the house to plan the next step.

Jasmine knew she couldn’t just give her parents $20,000. They would have too many questions! So, instead, she trotted down to the post office and put the bills in ten envelopes all addressed to her father and shoved them into the mail bin, feeling a genuine smile sneak across her face.

When she returned home, she decided to store the notebook in the old tree where she had found it – just so her parents never discovered the bills she had drawn. Before she put it back in the tree’s knot, she surveyed the contents of the book one more time, and she noticed there was enough space for one more drawing. She debated what else to draw. Maybe one last $100 bill for herself?

She sat down at the foot of the tree, and just as she was about to put pen to page, she heard a familiar, squirrely voice above her – and she knew what she had to do.

She sketched a cute lady squirrel. When the female squirrel popped out in front of her, the angry chittering above her went suspiciously silent, and soon the grumpy squirrel appeared on the ground to sniff at the newcomer and nuzzle her gently.

Jasmine smiled. It was love, she thought, as the two scampered up the tree.

Three days later, when ten envelopes arrived in the mail, containing a total of $20,000, Jasmine pretended to be just as shocked as her parents.

“It’s the exact amount we need for the mortgage, Jack,” she heard her mom whisper with tears in her eyes.

And by that night Jasmine noticed the box of packer’s tape and other moving supplies had mysteriously disappeared.

The next day, Jasmine ran out to the old tree to look through the journal once more. But when she reached in, she felt only a sheet of paper and a pen.

The paper read, “Dearest Reader, you have reached the end of The Magic Notebook. Although it can give you anything you desire, its greatest gifts are the lessons it teaches. Those who learn one may share it below.”

Beneath the statement were the almost illegible scrawls of dozens of children, each expressing what they had learned.

- “That honesty is a form of courage.”

- “That adventure can be found anywhere.”

- “That love doesn’t see shapes, sizes, or colors.”

- “That loyalty is more important than pride.”

The list seemed endless, and Jasmine thought hard about how to express what she had gained from her adventures over the past week.

Finally, she wrote: “That even though I’m just a kid, I can make a real difference through creativity.”

She folded the paper and put it carefully back in the tree. As she turned to leave, excitement flooded her heart as she began to imagine new ways to make an impact.

Above her, the happy sound of squirrels made her smile.

Suddenly, she had one more lesson for the notebook. She spun back to the tree to add that “squirrels have feelings, too,” but when she reached in for the paper, it was gone. Just like magic.