I'm Write about Tomorrow

Eldridge Grayson was probably one of the unluckiest men who had ever graced this planet. He was neither black nor white. He was neither Jew nor Christian though his mother was fair and Jewish, and his father was black and Christian. He perhaps felt a little more affinity towards his Jewish clan for the simple reason he had been raised by his Jewish grandmother. However, every time she attempted to indoctrinate him into Judaism, his father would swoop in and declare that his child was not going to be a Jew. Eldridge’s grandmother would contest by saying Jews are born through their mothers. She had tried to get Eldridge circumcised when he was a babe, and his father swooped in and declared, “not my child.” She had wanted to enroll him in Hebrew school. His father appeared at the doors of the shul one day, saying, “I did not approve of my son coming to Hebrew school. After which, his father then asked him, “aren’t you glad that I got you out of that?” To which Eldridge replied, “Father, I want to go to Hebrew school. “

“Why would you want to do that?”

“Because all my friends are there, and I want to be with him.”

“We need to get you some new friends!”

Nonetheless, all this minutia of his early life is just to give you a bit of background on who he was and what his life was like. Let’s flash forward to Eldridge’s life today. Eldridge is now in his late 40s, but he would say his mid-40s. He grew to be a brilliant teacher. No one in his circle would deny that at the age of 27, he invented a methodology for teaching any given subject that one might want to teach. The concept was to change information into suits of a card game. After which, people would play a Rummy-like game to learn the information.

Eldridge woke up to a rather rainy day, something somewhat rare in Los Angeles. He got dressed; it took him a while four; he had to search for some range shoes and a raincoat which had been buried in his closet for a rain hat; he Simply put a plastic bag on his head. Eldridge did not like driving which is the problem in Los Angeles, as everyone knows, so I won’t go into that. Therefore he took the bus to his job. For the past few days, Eldridge had encountered a disagreeable bag woman; she was quite aggressive. That morning, she confronted Eldridge with a little black book in our hand. As he sat in front of this CVS, she went from person to person on the bus stop asking if they wanted to buy this little black book. The first thought that came to Eldridge’s mind was that she had stolen it. Then he would say to himself, “stop it, Eldridge, you have no idea where she got that book.” he would often speak to himself in his head when he felt his prejudices getting the better of him.

“buy a magic black book, Sir.”

“no, thank you!”

“It will bring you anything you want.”

“no, thank you!”

“You got dreams?”

“Please!”

“This book can make‘em come true.”

At this point, Eldridge was getting so frustrated that he simply looked in his wallet, and when he looked, he had a pair of $10 bills. Thinking it was a little much to give her, however, his frustration overcame him, and he handed over one.

“you will not regret this. You have just bought yourself a new life.”

“well, I sure need one lady.”

She succinctly handed him the book, and oddly enough, when she did, there was a slight electrical charge that snapped his fingers. You know the kind, as if he had rubbed his feet on a new carpet and then touched someone.

Other than that morning’s encounter, the day was much like any other, and by 5:00 o’clock, Eldridge was in his apartment. Being hungry, he looked into his fridge and saw that it was almost empty. He thought you’ve got to go shopping sometimes, Eldridge. Now being efficient, Eldridge had a very particular way of shopping. He always made a list; he stuck to the list. He did not believe in impulse buying. Sometimes he would make two shopping trips to scope out where what he wanted was, how much it cost, and what brands he wanted. After having calculated the amount of money, he would need, he took that out of the bank, went back to the store, and bought only the things which he had previously researched.

This evening’s problem was that he had forgotten to put post-its on his shopping list the last time; therefore, he had nothing to make a shopping list with. After about 30 minutes of scuttling around to find a piece of paper, it dawned on him that he had the notebook. He went to his raincoat, pulled it out of the right pocket, sat down, and began writing his shopping list.

• Post-its

• Eggs

• Butter

• Spinach

• pastrami

• Rye bread

• Almond milk

Once he completed his list, he started to get ready to go out again. The moment he got to the door and was about to leave, the telephone rang. He picked it up, and a strange voice was on the other end. It only said one thing, and that was: “how’s the book working for you so far?”

“excuse me?”

Then he heard the click of a phone hanging up and a dial tone. How strange he thought; he went to set the phone down on the kitchen table. And as he set it down, he noticed a yellow pad of post-its sitting next to the phone.

“where did you come from?”

He looked at the posted pad with great curiosity. “When did I buy this?” he asked himself. Then he thought, never mind, you better get to the store before it closes. He walked a few steps farther, and then he noticed a package of Rye bread sitting on the counter. Where the heck did this come from? Is this some kind of joke? Now, he knew that he hadn’t bought any Rye bread and was entirely out, yet there was a new package sitting on the counter. This whetted his curiosity. He approached the refrigerator but was almost afraid to open it up. He turned around and thought, I’m going to the store to get this stuff. And as he reached the threshold of the kitchen door, he saw the rye bread again. He turned around immediately, opened up the fridge door, and there sat eggs, butter, spinach, pastrami, and almond milk.

His mouth dropped; he could not believe his eyes, but everything he had written on the list suddenly had appeared in the kitchen. He sat down at the kitchen table. As he did, he remembered the phone call and said, “it was the old lady.”

He then thought, let me try something; he added chocolate almond milk to the list. He waited for about 5 minutes, which he felt was sufficient for it to appear in the refrigerator. He opened the fridge door, and there it was.

Someone is playing a joke on me. Someone is having a good laugh at my expense. But who?

He went to his bedroom and lay on the bed. How can I test this? What are the limits? Then he thought he’d try something. He picked up the book and sat at the kitchen table again. He wrote down, my boss needs to call me into his office to discuss changing our pedagogical system. He will put me in charge of the project and ask the County Board to promote me and give me a raise. He then closed the book and went to bed.

The next morning, he arrived at school. And the minute he passed through the school’s gate, the principal of the school approached him.

“Eldridge, just the man I want to see. I need you to drop by my office; we have a few things that I’d like to discuss with you.”

“Is there anything wrong, Sir?”

“other than you doing a bang-up job, no nothing at all. But there is a big project that I want you to work on, and if we can get it right, I’m pretty sure there’s a raise and a promotion in it for you.”

Oh my God whipped through Eldridge’s thoughts. It works! Needless to say, that Eldridge wore a smile on his face during the entire day. He was making big plans and could not wait to get home and write down his dreams in the book.

When he got home, he picked up the book. There was something odd about it; the edges seemed slightly frayed. When the old lady gave him the book, it had the appearance of being brand new, and it seemed to have aged a considerable amount in just one day. But he said to himself, maybe I’m just imagining things; perhaps it was always this way.

He sat at the kitchen table, wondering what he should ask for next. Should it just be money? Should he ask for fame? The problem with fame is that everybody knowing you can be cumbersome. So he scratched fame off his list. If he were to ask for money, how much should he ask for? Did the book have limitations? If he asked for too much, perhaps his request would be denied.

“let me ask for a reasonable amount? $5000, what can I get you today? $10,000 that doesn’t even buy a car. $20,000 that should be a good amount.”

So he wrote down, “the lady from the Periodical Clearinghouse Sweepstakes will meet me tomorrow with a $20,000 check.”

And like a child on Christmas, he went to bed early with the idea the sooner I go to sleep, the sooner Santa will come. The next morning, at 8:00 o’clock, there was a knock at the door.

He sleepily headed towards the front door, saying to himself who could be knocking at the door at this time of day, as he opened it.

“You’re Marsha Brandon, the lady from the Periodical Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.”

“Are you Eldridge Grayson?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Well, here are some Flowers for you and our signature balloons, and Mr. Grayson Periodicals Clearinghouse Sweepstakes is happy to announce that you’re the proud winner of $20,000.”

“It can’t be true!”

“It is absolutely true. What are you going to do with the money?”

“I’ll probably put it in the bank and pay off some bills.”

Bills, he thought, damn, I should have asked for more. I mean, I’m 45 years old, and I’m still paying off student loans. He went back to the kitchen to find the black book. Now it was more frayed, and pages seem to be missing.

“ what?”

Yes, it seemed that with every war quest, the book deteriorated, and the bigger the request, the more the deterioration.

Eldridge was actually frightened now. What should he ask for next? If he asked for something too big, the book might disintegrate altogether. And if he asks for something too small, would it even be worth asking for. Another thing crossed his mind; if he asked for something too big more than the book had left to give, would he get it?” I mean the $20,000 had taken its toll.

Eldridge didn’t sleep that night; he passed the weekend, afraid to write anything in the book. Monday came, and he slipped the book into his briefcase, went to the bus stop, and waited for the bus to arrive. The old woman approached him.

“How’s the book working for you?”

He asked her,“ if you knew about this book, why didn’t you use it?”

“ Because only you are right about tomorrow.”

And when she said this, Eldridge knew what he had to do. He took out the book and wrote the last line before it turned into dust and that was open “ give her a home.”