Little Black Book

Its ironic really, how you can go about your day, sometimes all to mundane that it seems one day just rolls into the next. Today is one of those days, go to sleep, alarm goes off, hit snooze, get up, get coffee, check the weather, shower and go to work. The repetition in itself almost exhausting and anticlimactic. Today, I thought I would change things up a bit. How about a visit to that thrift store on the corner that just opened up. I see it every day on my way to work. Such a curious little thrift shop.

My world has grown rather small since I work such long hours only to get home, and prepare for the next day to do it all again. After work I made it my mission to stop at that thrift store. Something's got to change!

As I walked into the thrift store, a rather overly excited older lady greeted me. I wasn't really into small talk, so I kept my conversation as brief as possible. I looked through the old records, maybe I'd buy one since they seem to be making a comeback, looked at the shoes, in which some would have a better place in the trash than here. As I sorted through the assorted oddities, I found a rather classy overcoat, perfect for just about everything I wore on a daily basis. I decided I would buy that and a Peter, Paul and Mary record from the 1970's. I know ,that's a bit out dated, but it just reminds me of my parents and music they would listen to when I was a child.

I put on my "new" used jacket, it fit perfectly! I paid and thanked the cashier, who wanted to continue to hold a longer conversation than I cared for and left as soon as could. She gave me an odd look.

Forgetting already that I was wearing my new jacket, I slowly put my hands inside the pockets to find my keys. They weren't in their but my right hand felt something inside my pocket and it defiantly wasn't my keys! It was a book. A very small, old black book of some sort. The binding looked and smelled old and the edges were quite worn. I wanted to read what's inside but I needed to get home, besides, I'd look weird standing here reading it! So I placed it back in my pocket. I found my car keys in my other pocket and as I was driving home, I couldn't stop thinking about that little black book!

As soon as I got home I pulled out the black book and as I read the first page I about fell on the floor! My name was inscribed on the inside! I stumbled across the living room clumsily trying to sit down while my eyes where affixed to the pages of this mysterious black book! It was a journal of some sort and as I rummaged through the pages it was describing everything that had happened in my life including the visit today to the thrift store!

I paused for a moment, oh now! That's it! I have finally lost my freaking mind! I need a drink! I sat the little black book down and poured myself a shot of whisky. okay maybe more than one, I mean after all wouldn't you?

I went back and picked up the little black book and once again the description of me drinking my whisky was there. I skipped ahead a few pages and it said that I was going to call my therapist to up my prescription for my anxiety medication.

That's when it occurred to me. What would happen if I erased what was written and rewrote what I would do next? I thought long and hard what I would write, but, to play it safe I decided a safety test was necessary!

I gently erased my supposed phone call to my therapist and re-wrote that I would receive a knock at my door from my next door neighbor giving my my mail that she had accidently received..... and frightfully to my amazement it happened! I could tell by the look on my neighbors face she could see I was in shock! I could barely speak and I quickly took the mail from her hands and slammed the door shut! This can't be happening, right?

I began to think about my life and this book , what if I could re-write the past? I could re-write my career, my friends, my financial situation there was no end to the possibilities for me now!

I began to make all kinds of changes, past, present, future, I had insane money, I was famous, I was invited to every VIP party there could be! I had a car for every day of the week, a mansion, anything I could imagine, I would scribble into that little black book, and if I didn't like it, well, I could just erase it! If I got sick, I could change it, and so this went on...one day after the next, year after year....I could change everything!

Ten years went by, it was pretty amazing! Twenty years and I began to realize how many friends weren't really my friends and it made me resentful. I would erase them if I found out they where only using me, which was most of them and my eraser was looking rather thin by now!

Thirty years, forty, now and my life no matter how well off it goes, has become more like my life from the beginning, Predictable, mundane and meaningless.....I began to drink my sorrows away, my thoughts got the best of me. I began to erase today...no, lets erase yesterday, no, this year.....until I had in my drunken state of mind...I erased the whole book!

(Sound of alarm going off)

Its ironic really, how you can go about your day, sometimes all to mundane that it seems one day just rolls into the next. Today is one of those days, go to sleep, alarm goes off, hit snooze, get up, get coffee, check the weather, shower and go to work. The repetition in itself almost exhausting and anticlimactic. Today, I thought I would change things up a bit. How about a visit to that thrift store on the corner that just opened up. I see it every day on my way to work. Such a curious little shop.