Fortunate Misfortunes

The year is 3333 and the state of the earth, if not for the advanced technology, would have been nearing armageddon but the days were slowly approaching. My name is Uni, I’m your average skinny, tattooed, and pierced body boy and right now my home is in a metal shack in the middle of a desert but fret not I’m not alone. I welcome you to the Desert Vill, a village powered by solar panels with roughly a population of about 22,000 people. The people here lived off trading, they traded their items, gifts, and abilities with one another; unless you had a diamond, diamonds had become the new and scarce dollar making its. Without diamonds, if you wanted some food, you’d either have to work for it or exchange something of value to the cooks for a proper hot meal. As an adult in my twenties, I’ve gained a pretty good and ugly bad reputation in the Vil, and whenever someone was saying my name “Uni!” I was typically running away; running from chefs with a mouthful of their food, running, in nothing but a ladies towel, from scorned men with spike bats and lastly running away from our local law enforcement “The Watchers” for everything I did as a juvenile to piss them off. As rowdy as the Vill could be, the nights were what I lived for. The nights brought in a preserved spot where the cities light gave life to a lifeless area without emitting a single sound. While sitting in one of my secret getaways, I leaned back and my right hand sunk into a pointy but soft texture in the sand and I freaked! I thought it was a desert spider or a desert roach, they’ve all evolved and adapted night vision as well as some people; I myself have an ability, whenever I uhm *coughs* - *chuckles” let's say reach the climax in any movie or book my fingertips light up and tonight, I discovered tonight that deep fright could ignite my fingers as well. Wrist deep sunken into the sand, my right hand glowing, I picked up, what seemed like, a book. A book? I asked in fascinating confusion, mind you, the year is 3333, people of the desert could only dream of a book and there I was in the presence of a metallic black book. I ran down this sandy mountain so fast I stumbled and lost my steps but my hands, which were now glowing uncontrollably, never lost grip of the book. I ran through the light failed grainy streets as

kids, who were out way past bedtime, screamed “Hey, that’s Uni” “Hey Uni!” They all screamed, I nodded hurriedly with a slight chuckle as one of the kids asked “Hey what’s that in your hands” and that’s when I knew to put a pep in my step and I turned that street corner and dashed home. Having made it home unscathed, I pulled back a massive sliding metal door and entered my room with haste. I sat down in my rolling chair and scooted myself across the room to a study table under a lamp. This book was slightly different from what I’ve heard in the tales of books, I didn’t see any pages, just a metal reflector, and the book, confusingly title-less, wouldn’t open up. I started to analyze the book heavily, I flipped it upside down, I felt on every edge and corner in an attempt to open in and that’s when I saw the glare. There was an iridescent on the cover of the book, in the shape of 3 fingerprints. So I placed my index, middle, and ring finger into the print shape marks but to no avail and it frustrated me, It frustrated me so much that my fingertips started to glow again and just as it did, the book cracked open like a transformer - making all sorts of gadgety type noises and even ended with a soft exhaust as I flipped the metal cover completely open. As I took a look at the first page of that book, my eyes were met with written instruction. I could tell it had been written in English, luckily my mother was still in-tap with her ancestry so I learned to read and speak the language at a young age, who knew it’d come in use today. The wording read, “If you’re reading this, you're the luckiest unluckiest person ever, your life will never be the same. Now that you’ve opened the book of Felix Casus you must obey these three rules

Rule 1. Never tell anyone about the book, now that you’ve opened it, you will be the only one who can see it for the time being.

Rule 2. The pages in this book will grant your every desire but you must acknowledge that everything comes with a price, so be careful what you wish for and you’re only allowed one verbal wish but that may come with a hefty price

Rule 3. You must write in this book every 12 hours.

Are you kidding me I thought, why would I return this!? The book has been the single most exciting thing to happen to me in all my life. As I lifted the book off the tabletop, a pen fell from a hidden compartment on the back of the book and I quickly noticed every page including the first one that previously had the rules written on it were all blank. So there I stood, pacing back and forth, wondering what do I do now? I have a pen and blank pages, so I just write down what I want? yeah, let me try a desert cart, wait no I should probably be out of the city when I do that one, “ouuh” I got it, I said excitingly. I grabbed my pen and started to write out, a small bag filled with 20,000 diamonds and I waited for what seemed like forever. I wasn’t sure what I was waiting for, was it suppose to just appear? Was there suppose to be a man who delivered it to me? What! I confusingly screamed and then it happened again. My fingertips started to radiate a strobing fluorescent color on each, and I grabbed the pen and started to write and glowing words started to appear as I wrote out “20,000 diamonds in a small bag” and it appeared on the counter I was staring at form into reality out of the sand. No way, no way, no way! I screamed as I quickly walked over to the table, I opened the

bag and my face glistened from the light reflecting off the diamonds. It’s funny how we all know exactly what we want when we aren’t able to acquire it, but it’s like once we’re able to do as we please were paralyzed by the options and having forgotten them all at once. The following morning, I did my morning ritual and hid the book under a cloak of invisibility for protection I bolted out of the house with my bag. As I confidently walked down the street with the biggest grin on my face, I planned to stop by Laxy’s house, Laxy has been my childhood crush since childhood of course, and today was the day that I was able to treat her how I’ve always envisioned but before I did that I needed a desert cart and not just any desert cart but the “Sand Spitter 6000” that would cost me 6,000 diamonds but it’s well worth it. The store transaction was actually easier than I thought so I walked out of the store with the Sand Spitter and started spitting sand. I arrive at Laxy’s home with my new cart, shining bright orange with reflectors on each wheel interchanging colors with one another. I knocked on the door like I owned the house and there came Laxy, I swore it felt like time took a break from reality when she opened the door, and I smiled. Hey Laxy, I said timidly, It’s been a while and I know you barely remember me from school but I’ve always liked you and was wondering if you’d like to go out with me tonight, like now? She stared in confusion and said whoa? Uni? Is this for real? Of course, I’ll go out with you, let me get my jacket yeah? And off she went to grab her belongings, screaming at her mother as she exited the door, ma! I'm going on a date “A date?” questioned her mother “yes mom a date date, see you tonight ok” Laxy replied. Sick cart Laxy said to Uni, thank you I just got it today, you feeling Sandy Food tonight? Uni asked. Isn’t that a bit expensive Uni? “Nothings too expensive for you Juliana“ replied Uni and they both burst out in laughter shortly afterward because that was paraphrased from an infamously corny movie the people of their city knew of. As Uni and Laxy get in the car and start driving they got on the apex (highway) to get to the

restaurant sooner. In the middle of the road, another cart pulled up beside Uni and Laxy and rolled down their window, and shot a tactical string at the tires of my new cart causing it to flip and crash out, the cart tumbles as Uni and Laxy were both in it and the tumbling comes to a screeching end. I groggily unbuckled myself and unbuckled Laxy to get her out of the cart. While crawling out the cart with Laxy’s unconscious body on me, 3 banged-up carts pulled in closer and started to circle us, and that’s when I noticed they were pirates. I should’ve known not to take this road with my Sand Spitter but the excitement overtook the awareness of my surroundings and Laxy’s paid a hefty price for it, for my mistake. Two of the pirates got off their carts and came up to the sand spitter, flipping it upright as one of them attached a rope from their carts to mine. A pirate, who wore a metal spike helmet, approached me, with a stun gun and said: “We’ve been following you since the cart-shop we know you have the diamonds". Then he pointed his gun at me and said, “Empty out both y’alls pockets” I reached in my pocket and threw him the black bag of diamonds and the rest of our belongings; he retreated back to his cart and they mockingly cheered and hollered as they hauled off. I was far too focused on Laxy who had still been unconscious this entire time, to be worried about material things. Laxy’s breathing started to grow faint as well as her heartbeat as I hugged her and cried for her to wake. Then unexpectedly, a Sand Spitter 6000 pulled up beside us on the road, and out came a local Watch Woman, Karma, everybody knew Karma. She ran to Laxy and me quickly and called The Watchers telling them to bring 2 rescue carts and we waited patiently for them to arrive. After 20 minutes of waiting, they finally arrive but it wouldn’t be long before they announced Laxy dead. My knees buckled and I thought to myself “what have I done, I just wanted to do the right thing for once and it all went left”. I lost hold of my emotional state and my fingertips started to radiate and I screamed at the spectating clouds “I wish I never

found that book, I wish none of this ever happened” and boom! In an instant, I was warped out of a horrendous daydream- sitting atop a sandy mountain staring at the night sky. I felt a sharp pain on my right hand as I reclined, "damn it, I screamed" as I quickly tucked my hand close to my chest and watched as a desert spider dug back into the sand.