Not Another Black Book Story

In the clear depths of the evening sky, Alex takes a walk into his local town to escape the stressful air his parents’ argument had provoked. A breath of clear, fresh air. Alex loved to walk outside, looking up to the stars to regain his perspective, to make him feel more at ease. Along the path he walks, further into town when he begins to sense a presence lurking behind him. He takes a quick glimpse behind to reveal a strange dark figure shadowing him, scarily with a quick pace. Instinctively, he proceeds onwards with caution, but doesn’t think much of it. Until, he then hears a vague noise coming from the strange figure but couldn’t quite depict it. Once again, Alex ignores it with caution and carries on moving ahead. Until, he hears a similar noise this time much, much clearer.

“You!” the strange figure projected across the street, engraved with preconceived fear instilled by the darkness of the evening. With his ears wide open, he hears the dark figure’s footsteps form into a silence, so Alex stops as well. Frozen by fear, and still facing forward, Alex doesn't move a muscle, monitoring the whereabouts of the figure with his ears. A couple of seconds later, the echoing streets are greeted with a loud thud, and the scrambling of feet from the scene. Alex quickly turns around to see that the dark figure had disappeared into one of the alleys between two of the town shops whilst out the corner of his eye, he notices an object lying on the ground where the figure was once standing. “That must’ve been the thud” Alex thinks.

Collecting his thoughts, Alex prepares himself to approach where the figure once was. He steps closer, walking slowly until he reaches the object on the ground, checking around him to make sure he’s safe. Before touching it, he peers around the path in the direction of the alleyway, checking to see if the strange figure was there or not. There wasn’t a soul to be seen. With a final check, Alex bends down towards the object but now the different angle and lighting reflected and revealed that the object was in fact a notebook; a beautifully crafted black notebook strangely in perfect condition, almost as if it was just bought. As he picked it up, his body overfilled with shock and confusion as he read the name on the front cover. It read “Alex J. Barker”. Alex had never written in a notebook before, and so knew it couldn’t be his. He flicks through quickly to see if there were notes in there and some of the pages had writing in but before he read any of them, and to ensure he wasn't going crazy, he turned back to the front but this time said out loud "But how does it have my name on there?!”.

Shocked with disbelief, he then cautiously opens it to the first page and reads it:

“Today is the 2nd March 2021

You probably won’t believe this but you have the opportunity to receive $20,000.

All you have to do is follow these rules.

Despite his disbelief in what this strange notebook said, curiosity wins the battle and Alex continues to read on:

“Rule 1 - Never lose and never damage this book,

If you are to receive this $20,000, you must keep this book in pristine condition”

Alex with a smile of disbelief on his face, thinks “easy enough”. With the book in his hand, and the strange figure nowhere to be seen, he begins walking away enticed with curiosity.

He continues to read.

“Rule 2 - This may seem like a strange one but what I want you to do is look up to the stars. Simple as that. Clear your mind, clear your thoughts and just appreciate the moment and how this book came to be in your hands.”

Alex confused and thinking “What’s this got to do with getting $20,000?” Regardless, Alex continues on. The idea of $20,000 makes Alex smile, thinking of how he could treat his parents to something nice and give them the break they both deserve. “$20,000 can change someone's circumstance dramatically”, he thinks. He continues reading. He is so captivated by the strange nature of this book, his entire focus is being consumed by it, not paying attention to anything else. Now away from his town and crossing the neighbouring bridge, Alex is about to turn the page when his foot is rudely met with a rock, causing him to abruptly trip over. Instinctively, Alex puts his hands out to catch his fall, but whilst doing so, he lets go of the book causing it to fly through the air, land on the ground and slide beneath the joints of the bridge edge, falling off entirely! Alex quickly rises but to his disappointment, watches the book fall down into the gushing river beneath. Alex thought “Well I'm not seeing that again''. He never believed that a book could get him $20,000 but was entertained by the peculiar nature of it. Brushing himself off from the fall, he takes a stance and decides it's time to head back home.

On his way home, with the stars out in the sky, Alex looks up to them, glances and stares with a smile, almost with relief and appreciation. Looking at the twinkling dances of the stars, Alex is struck with an idea that makes him uncontrollably smile. He thinks “Why don’t I start writing in a notebook?!”

He thinks, “Let’s do it” and proceeds back into town where the stationary shop was.

Entering the shop, he has a clear goal in mind. He glances at the selection of notebooks, none took his fancy until he saw a black notebook that looked similar to the one he had just lost.

“Perfect” he thinks to himself. With his new notebook and a pen he bought as well, he exits the shop.

He doesn’t exactly know what to write just yet , so he thinks in the meantime, “I've treated myself to something, why don’t I buy my parents a little something as well.” Maybe that will cheer them up a little” he humbly thought. So, Alex then pops into a couple of the shops in town and buys his Mum’s favourite flowers and his Dad’s favourite chocolate. With a smile, he begins to walk home.

After giving his Mum the flowers and his Dad the chocolate, it did indeed put a smile on their faces and clear the atmosphere a little. In their minds at that moment, they were just grateful to have such an incredible son that cares an incredible amount. Once the family hugs were over and the smiles were made, Alex decides to take some extra time for himself with a walk again as he wants to write something in his new notebook. But he still doesn't know what yet.

Stepping back outside once again into the evening air, Alex set off on his walk, glancing up at the stars, casting his mind off into the creative outside world, wondering to himself “What can I write?”. He starts by writing his name on the front and flicking to the first page, hoping that inspiration would strike him.

Minutes pass by as he peacefully walks back into town one last time.

Then it hits him.

He knows exactly what to write.

With a smile, he gets out his pen and begins writing out his idea starting with the date. “Today is the 2nd March..” and proceeds to fill the pages with his idea whilst he strolls through the waves of evening air and the blissfully quiet town.

Minutes pass by, his idea now in the notebook and with a huge smile on his face, he spots a perfect opportunity for it; someone to give the book too which was part of his idea.

The stranger in front is far away, no one but Alex and the stranger ahead is around so he tries to get their attention. “Hey” Alex says, trying to get them to turn around. But unfortunately no answer. He paces his walk to try and catch up but not so much to scare them, and tries to get their attention one last time. “You!”. Still no answer. So he tries something different and just stops walking. He got the impression that the stranger in front felt as if they were being followed so he thought stopping may get a different result. He did. The stranger stopped as well.

He knows the stranger wouldn’t want to walk to a random person in the evening darkness, so Alex decides to gently throw the notebook on the floor and flee the scene, hoping that the stranger would be curious enough to check it. But with all the excitement and rush, Alex remembers that he wrote his name on the front, which would take away the mystery from his idea! But it was too late, Alex had already left the scene and seemingly vanished between an alleyway of two buildings.

The stranger in front of Alex turned around and was puzzled at the book now on the floor. With care and scepticism, the stranger slowly approached the book on the ground, checking around to make sure it was still safe. The stranger made his way to the object. Flipping the book over, the stranger was struck by shock and flicked to the first page. But before reading anything, to make sure he wasn't going crazy, he checked the front cover one last time. With confusion and curiosity, the person says out loud:

“But how does it have my name on there!?”