A Magical Gift

It was Friday May 17th 1974. It was my 10th birthday. No longer a kid. I'm a double digit now. Tonight is my party and I am so excited. My aunt Mary is going to be here too. She lives in Tennessee and we live in California. I have only met her once before when we went to visit my mama’s family last year. Aunt Mary and I got along real well. She is my mama’s youngest sibling. She is only 19 years old. When I was there she liked playing with my hair. I have very long hair. She would do fancy breads and buns in my hair. We also played dress up. I would put on one of grandma's dresses and hills. I loved my aunt Mary very much. When Mama said that aunt Mary was going to be staying with us for a time I jumped up and down and danced around. No telling how long “a time” is, but I’m excited that she is staying with us.

The party was great and I got lots of wonderful gifts. I got a new blue dress with white ruffles on the bottom, I got some white gogo boots, just like I had been wanting and I even got a new bike. Daddy got me a Mrs. Beasley doll, like I was still a little girl. But I had been wanting one for a long time. I got lots of nice gifts, but the best gift was the one from aunt Mary. She got me a little black book to keep my dreams in. She said that if I write my dreams in the book that they will come true. She also told me to be careful what I write. She said “you don’t know how it will come to pass, but it will come to pass, so be careful what you write.”

The first thing I wrote was that daddy wouldn’t have to work in the mines anymore. Daddy works down in the mines at the US Borax. He comes home feeling sick most nights. He was passed up for a promotion last week that would have gotten him more money and out of the mine. Well, 2 days after I wrote it in my book, daddy got that promotion. The guy who it was given to first had to leave town to care for his sick mother in another state. I was so excited that it worked that I didn’t think to be careful with my next entry.

The next thing I wrote was that aunt Mary would stay with us for a long time. The very same day she fell roller skating with me and broke her ankle. The doctor said she would have to be off it for at least a few weeks and that the total rehabilitation could take months. I felt guilty and told aunt Mary what I had done. She said that it was just a coincidence, but I knew better. The little black book was magic and I could make anything happen. To prove it I wrote that we all went to Disney World in Florida. Mama said that a trip like that would cost too much for us all to go out there. I told her that I could get the money. She said that if I could save $20,000 we could all go. I wrote in my book that we all went to Disney World and had lots of fun. I waited and waited, then on the 5th day after writing in my book I found a paper bag full of money. Lots and lots of money.

Mama called the police and they came and took it. Now how was that fair. I found it. I didn’t even get to count it all. But, a few days later we got a call from the police station that we had an award to pick up from the bank for returning their money. It was $20,000, exactly what we needed for our vacation. Now aunt Mary had to believe me. I still didn’t try to convince anyone else. My brother TJ is only 6 so I knew he would believe me. He wanted me to write that he wouldn’t have to go to school anymore. I told him NO. that it was dangerous. “Look at aunt Mary,” I said, “she broke her ankle because of what I wrote.” I told him I would write that we got to take our vacation during school time. I wrote it in my book and then that worked as the only time daddy could get time off from work. It was the best vacation ever. We got to stay for a full week. I met Mickey and we got our pictures taken with lots of the cherators. I even got my own fairy wings. It was truly a magical experience.

I put the little black book in a lock box to keep it safe. It being small and my writing being big, I filled up the pages fast. I was halfway through the book already. I wanted to save those pages for something big.

I’m now 17, it's almost my 18th birthday. I wanted to write in my little black book for something amazing. But what? I was going to be an adult. I wanted to move out of this little desert town and move to live somewhere green. I had applied for many collages but my grades were not as high as I would have liked. I decided that writing in my book, ‘I love the college that I am going to with all the beautiful trees and mountains around me,’ would get me accepted to somewhere amazing. The next week I started getting my acceptance/denial letters from the colleges I had applied to. I got into the one I wanted in Corvallis, Oregon so I could study urban forestry. Thank you once more to my little black book. I write smaller now than when I was a kid. I will be careful to not use the pages too fast. I'm not sure if aunt Mary believed in the dream book when she gave it to me, but I know she does now.

What if it's just like the placebos the doctors use, and it's just my believing that makes my dreams come true? What if each one of us can create the life we want, just by believing in our dreams and ourselves? What if my little black book has no real power? Does it really matter? I believe that when I write in my little black book, that what I write will come to pass. Everytime I have written in it, it has come to pass. I will save these pages for important things for now on. I will try to find a way to help people, without causing any problems. I fear that if I ask for world peace, it may happen that many people will have to die for that to be possible. We could have a pandemic that kills many people or a nuclear explosion. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for that. I will make my wishes wisley.