The Black Book

”Watch it lady!”

I heard a voice shout behind me. I jumped out of the way just in time as someone flew past me on a bicycle. It was eleven at night, and I had just gotten off my evening shift at the diner. I stopped to catch my breath after being nearly run over by the jerk on the bike. That would be the icing on the cake for sure after this whopper of a year. A horn blared in the night fog and I looked up. I had instinctively jumped into the road. I dived out of the way of the incoming car and found myself in a heap of trash. This is just great. My usual luck. Almost get run over by a bike and a car all in one night. I looked at the trash around me in disgust, at least I was planning on taking a shower tonight. A small black leather bound book stuck out amongst all the garbage strewn around me. Looking closer, I realized it wasn’t garbage, but maybe the contents of someone’s purse or bag. Lipstick, make up compacts, money, among other things littered the gutter. I sat there for a moment, unsure what to do with all of it. Do I turn it into the police? I picked up the black book and flipped through it. It was filled halfway with handwriting, the beginning neat and tidy, towards the end it was more frantic and scratchy. All of it wishes.

I picked it up for some reason I couldn’t explain and tucked it under my arm, running through the silent street home.

When I got back to my small one bedroom apartment, I showered and laid down to sleep, but something was nagging at the back of my mind. I tossed and turned for what seemed like hours, and finally turned on the lamp on my bedside table. The black notebook stared back at me, ominous but enticing. I sat up and picked it up. It didn’t look old, but it had an old feel to it. I couldn’t place it but it felt like something you would pick up in an antique store, full of memories and time. I flipped through it again.

“I wish for my perfect dream job.” I read silently. “I wish for Jack Jones to marry me. I wish for a beautiful yellow house with a picket fence and a pool.” This was bizzare. Every line filled with the same. As I inspected closer, I realized every few pages seemed to be different handwriting, as if someone different wrote their wishes inside of this book. Very odd. I picked up a pen off my bedside table and turned to where no one had written anything yet.

I wish for 20K. I wrote. I didn’t expect anything to happen, not even sure where I even got the number from. I shrugged and put the notebook and pen back on my bedside table and turned off my light to try to sleep.

The next morning, I awoke feeling refreshed. I stretched and yawned and looked at the book on the table beside me. My phone started ringing, louder and shriller than usual it seemed. I ran over to my dresser where I left it the night before and picked it up. A number I did not recognize.

“Hello?” I said into the phone.

“Hello! Is this Cassandra French?” A man’s voice asked on the other side of the line.

“This is her,” I said hesitantly. “May I ask who is calling?”

“This is Paul Harris with Harris and Sons, calling about a Will I need to go over with you. Do you have time today to stop by my office?”

I was perplexed. A Will? For who? “I’m not sure that you have the right person, I don’t know anyone with any Wills to go over.”

“You are going to want to come in and we can talk this over. Twenty thousand dollars is a good chunk of change. We can go over the details when you get here. Does two o’clock work for you?”

I was too stunned to speak. What a weird coincidence! That was what I wrote into that little black book last night! I murmured agreement with him and quickly got off the phone, my brain in a fog. This was unreal. Who could have left me a will? My phone rang again and I almost dropped it. I looked down and saw my father’s number.

“Dad?” My voice this time came out in a squeak.

“Honey! I have been trying to get a hold of you all night! Your mother! I am so sorry to tell you this over the phone but your mother passed away last night!” His voice was coming out frantic and he sounded as though he was fighting back tears. “Things are moving quickly there are lawyers involved and I’m not sure what is going on. This is absolute madness. Honey?”

I couldn’t get one word out, my throat felt like it was closing up. “Dad?” I choked out, feeling as though this had to be a dream. “I’m coming down to see you.” I showered quickly and called a cab.

The next few days came as a blur. Paperwork and lawyers and funeral staff and my father crying. I felt numb. Twenty thousand dollars was deposited into my bank account, and I felt like it was cursed. Months went by and I couldn’t get myself to touch the money. Finally, it started to seem as though it was all a bad dream. There was no cursed black notebook, there was no cursed money. My mom had died of a heart attack and it just happened I had wished for money the night before. I wish for money all the time, everyone does! Little by little, things started going back to normal. I used the money in my account to pay down debt, and was starting to feel a bit better about it all.

The notebook sat in my dresser drawer collecting dust. It was always on my mind though. Like a darkness pressing in.

I wish for a car.

I saw myself write into the notebook. The high of it was exhilarating. I wasn’t sure why. I closed it and set it on my nightstand. I walked into my kitchen to get a glass of water and saw a car key sitting on the counter. My heart raced, and I picked it up and turned it over to look at it. I ran outside to the front of my apartment building and saw a shiny new car basking in the sun. I drove around town for the rest of the day, calling in to work telling them I was sick. The excitement was overwhelming, and I knew that the notebook had in fact caused this. The next morning I was brushing my teeth when I realized that I had a loose tooth. My very front tooth. I inspected it in the mirror. I hadn’t been hit or fallen or anything. Why would my tooth be loose? I wiggled it just a tiny bit and felt a POP! The tooth was sitting in my hand, and a gaping hole was left in my mouth.

I was coming apart at the seams. That was all there was to it. I looked at my wishes in the notebook. So many of them. So many that had taken something from me. My teeth missing, my hair falling out in clumps, fingernails falling off, I was wasting away, a skeleton of who I once was. The new tv I wished for sat in a corner, I hadn’t even used it yet. The fancy coffee machine I had wished for collected dust on my kitchen counter. My new house, empty except for me, and I was dying, I knew it. My family was gone. The book taking each person out with each wish I made. I had to do something. I had to make sure no one else got to this book. I grabbed my purse and stuck the notebook inside. I ran out my door into the misty night. It was getting close to eleven, and not many people were out. I ran down a familiar street, one I had walked down so many times before so long ago.

“Watch it lady!” I heard a voice behind me, and I dropped my purse and fell to the ground trying to get out of the way of a person on a bike. The contents of my purse flew everywhere, and I saw the book land in the gutter. I closed my eyes, drifting. I was dying, and didn’t have much longer. At least this hell would soon be over. A horn honked, and I opened my eyes. I laid there as I saw someone else, a girl, sitting in the gutter in front of me pick up the book. I wanted to shout at her. Don’t pick it up! Don’t open it! I shouted in my head. No words would come out. She turned her head towards my direction and I saw her.

“No,” I whispered. I felt the darkness take me.