Manifest.O

Victoria unbuttoned her shirt as she looked around in a frantic search for her elusive shorts under a pile of foreboding laundry, she was late again.

Grabbing her buzzing phone, she shut of the alarm for the umpteenth snoozed swipe, threw it in her bag and snatched up her keys as she barrelled through the front door.

Apple in her mouth and a bursting laptop bag strewn over one shoulder, she tried to balance getting in the car with her heels sticking out of her not-quite dressed-but on the go now – shoes.

WHY does this always happen?!! She thought to herself furiously as she turned the key and the old car lurched forward.

Deep breaths Victoria, she soothed herself. “I am the creator of my own life.” “I am a strong independent confident woman.” Repeating affirmations on the way to work had been undertaken on the advice of her spiritual coach – otherwise known as her latest hearts desire and smouldering yoga teacher Enrique.

“Expand your heart space, Victorrria! Tap into the multi facets of the Universal energy through the currency of love and vibrate with your desires to manifest your dream life and state of being.”

Ooh she shuddered in delight thinking about the way he said her name with that extra rrr and even though she had no idea what he was saying, he was dreamy all the same.

Victoria sighed, and tilted her head back just envisioning that time they almost – MEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHH!!

“AH!” She jolted upright. The fire crept up her cheeks as she sheepishly waved to the driver behind her, and proceeded through the green light.

Biting her lip, she giggled to herself shaking her head with embarrassment.

Pulling easily into her car space at the company building, she gathered herself together.

Victoria checked her hair in the mirror, gracefully smoothing it out into a high ponytail and applying her favourite gloss, aptly named crimson kiss. “Ha ha!” she thought that is perfect.

Quickly opening her car door, she stepped onto something hard.

Picking it up, she examined the little black book and then dismissing it almost entirely, threw it into her bag along with her notes and life’s belongings.

“I will hand that in later, someone must have lost it over the weekend” she thought to herself as she bundled her things and headed straight inside for another busy and productive day at the office.

Six o’clock came around so fast, Victoria had barely realised she was the last one there still working.

Overtime had become the norm as she had bills to pay and savings to accumulate for her future goals of owning her own home.

Although Victoria loved her work, she often contemplated leaving it all and heading off an adventure to travel and roam around the country.

Finding that balance between hustle and flow had never come easy for Victoria and right now she was all hustle and was in desperate need of some flow and enjoyment.

Rubbing her head and reaching for her phone, Victoria ran her fingers along a smooth flat surface.

At once, her fingertips started tingling as the feeling of electricity ran all the way up her arm with excitement. “Oh,” she gasped. “The book! I forgot to hand it in!”

Reaching in she pulled out the little black book, gently brushing the soft black cover with her hands. Circling her fingers over the ancient looking inscription on the small binder written in gold letters she read:

ꎭꍏꈤꀤꎇꍟꌗ꓄.ꂦ

Frowning, she wondered if she should open it?

Perhaps there was a number or name to return it to the owner, she knew how much she relied on her own planner.

Pondering the possible intrusion of privacy, versus the curiosity disguised as good intention burning inside her to open this book, she let her thoughts drift to possibilities of opening this little black book.

Victoria was many things, but above all she loved the mysterious and synchronistic ways of the world, and underneath her regimented exterior she was a hopeless romantic.

What if there was a secret she was to discover, or a mysterious stranger to return this to? A tall and dark handsome man, a serendipitous meeting between them and oh the story they would tell to their friends!

LOL. Omg. Too far Vic!

Chewing on her lip she wistfully tucked a long dark strand of her hair behind her ear and she furrowed her brow inquisitively at the wandering thoughts before she shook her mind clean.

Victoria turned the book slowly over in her hands and silently found her way to the small clasp at the edge, she felt her eyes light up and her belly tingled in that way she loved.

It was decided. She flicked the little black book open easily with two fingers and licked her lips excitedly to discover…..

Absolutely nothing.

“Whaat?!” She shouted aloud.

The pages were blank.

Victoria rolled her eyes and threw the empty diary onto the desk with contempt but as it hit the desk, the front cover flew open exposing more gold writing inside.

It read:

Manifest.O

Grab thy pen,

Write thy wish.

Dream thy dream,

Create life with this.

What in the world?

Victoria chuckled to herself, this was quite the inspirational planner wasn’t it?

That was all there was, it said nothing else anywhere!

Ok, here we go magic Manifest.O!

Smirking, she grabbed the nearest pen and chewed the end while she thought about her biggest wish at present.

Well, seeing how she had been working overtime, way overtime now due to this diary she suddenly realised how hungry she was. Right on que, her stomach growled. Ok! She thought. And she set the pen to the first page and began to write.

A dirty martin and the best pizza in town.

No sooner had she finished the full-stop, her phone started buzzing.

It was her best friend Lenni calling to go for dinner.

“There’s a new hot spot opened up just around the corner babe, a new pizza place called Pavarotti’s it’s meant to be amazing! Meet you there in 10? I have someone I want you to meet, he’s my new squeeze!”

Stunned and mouth opened, Victoria suspiciously agreed.

After she hung up, she starred at the page pondering in amazement for a hot minute, before shaking her head and laughing to herself.

“Coincidence! Lenni always has good timing, and it is dinner time after all.” She began feeling silly for having entertained such a crazy notion in the first place.

Victoria packed up her things, threw the diary in her bag and headed off to meet Lenni and whoever this new squeeze was, she was famished and so excited for pizza.

First to arrive, she grabbed a booth for them at the back and slid in swiftly, picking up the menu as she moved across.

The waiter was ready to take drink orders for starters.

“You know what?” She smiled secretly. “I will have my dirty martini thanks!”

“I am sorry Miss, we don’t make martinis here. Would you like the wine list?” Replied the waiter.

“Oh, no that’s ok.” Victoria said flatly. “Three beers thank you.”

Bummed out she sat there for a second, she was actually disappointed.

Confirmation, the Manifest.O was not real! Ahh she felt silly again.

Victoria reached in to re-read her page when all of a sudden, in burst Lenni and her squeeze!

OH my Lord, they were dripping from head to toe, what in the world?

A frazzled Lenni squelched over to the booth.

“You will not believe what happened to us!” She cried as she threw her hands up in the air.

“We were walking along Southside Avenue, you know like normal human beings minding our own business when this huuuge truck drove in too close to the bloomin’ gutter and into this massive puddle. It sprayed us head to toe!” Lenni was so animated when she told stories Victoria stifled a laugh behind her hand.

“OH.. my! Are you ok?” Victoria managed to say, through suppressed fits of laughter and tight lips.

“Yes! Thank goodness. NOW let me introduce you to this beautiful waterlogged and somewhat dirty creature. Vic, this is Martin.”

Victoria held out her hand to greet him and stopped short, mouth dropping slightly as her face froze.

“Um Vic?” Laughed Lenni. “Are you good?”

Recovering from her shock, Victoria shook Martin’s hand. “Lovely to meet you!” She stammered.

After a good night of drinks, slices and banter they all said goodnight and headed home.

As soon as they were out of sight, Victoria grabbed her Manifest.O and flicked open the first page.

“A DIRTY MARTIN!” She had written. Instead of Martini!

WHAT?! OH MY WORD! LITERALLY MY WORD! Her thoughts raced as she ran home, flew inside and grabbed a pen.

Dream thy dream she thought. Ok, here goes.

In the morning, Victoria awoke on the couch sprawled over her pages with pen in hand and hair strewn all over her face, she had been writing all night.

Outside in her driveway, the sound of beeping rose her from her sleepiness and she rubbed her eyes as she made her way to the window.

It was a moving truck.

Victoria smiled, giddy like a child.

“Good morning,” she said warmly as she opened the door for the movers. “We’ll start over there, the furniture first and then the bigger items.”

Today, her dreams were reality.

Today, everything possible was manifested.

Tick, dream home.

Logging into her bank account, her new balance stated $20,000!

Depositing half the money into Cryptocurrency, she watched her stocks instantly rise up and up until they were worth over $10,000,000!

On the way in to her last day at the office, Victoria ordered a brand new camper trailer to be delivered to her new home. Freedom and adventure had arrived!

Kicking up her heels just before the end of the day, she popped a bottle of champagne as she hung up the phone from a car dealer, who congratulated her on the latest 4WD she had just won in a competition.

As she poured herself a glass of bubbles to celebrate this new beginning, she smiled thinking about her appointments with the banks tomorrow to pay off her family’s mortgages by surprise.

When the front door knocked gently, she looked up and felt that flutter in the bottom of her belly that she loved.

“Your camper has arrived, Miss Victoria. Would you like to come and see it? I’ll show you how it all works. I have adventures in these all the time.” He said kindly.

Smiling back at the beautiful hazel eyes piercing her soul, there was her tall dark and handsome man.

The next morning, as the sun shone down on Victoria’s joyful face, she took a deep breath of the wonderful life around her and her heart fluttered.

Over by the river’s edge, she saw a homeless man stirring to the morning sun.

She ordered two large coffees and walked over to sit beside the man, handing him one.

The man startled and slowly reached out for the coffee. “Thank you, young lady.” He said tiredly.

Victoria sat for a while with this man chatting about his life on the streets. They spoke about a new homeless shelter that was still in proposal stages, the community centre for children and young adults that had no funding and many other things the city was in desperate need of.

As she stood up to say goodbye, she handed the man a brown paper bag and her warmest smile.

“Make your difference.” She whispered softly, and then walked away.

The man opened the paper bag expecting food and looked inside, what in the world?

All that was in there was a pen, and a little black book.