The Wishing Book

As owner of a consignment store John had recently acquired an old hutch and a large wooden chest at an estate sale. Upon returning to the shop, he found the chest was missing its key and the hutch had a stuck drawer. He called the estate and was told that as far as anyone knew there wasn’t a key for the chest. So, he set the chest aside, and started toward the hutch with the intent to work on it instead.

At that moment the phone rang. The caller had a very pleasant, feminine voice. “Hi, my name is Sarah. This might be a long-shot, but have you recently acquired a chest from an estate sale in Odgen, Utah?”

John responded he had.

Rather excitedly Sarah asked, “Would you do me a favor? Would you look at the chest and see if it has any engravings on its underside? It’s important to me.”

Shrugging his shoulders, John asked Sarah to hold on while he looked. John confirmed a few minutes later.

Sarah exclaimed, “Then I want to buy that chest!”

John laughed at Sarah’s response, and at the same time was ecstatic: sales usually took a lot longer than a couple minutes on the phone.

“Well, if you want it, it’s yours.” John smiled. “You should know though, that it didn’t seem to come with a key. But if you’re still willing to take it, I’m willing to sell it along with its contents, sight unseen, over the phone. I can even have it delivered tomorrow.”

Sarah gladly paid for the chest, so John let the packing crew know he needed to have the chest ready for a delivery to Malad, Idaho the next day.

The following afternoon, John decided to move the old hutch into a place in his shop so he could work on it. With a soft thump, he set the corner of the hutch down. As he did so, an envelope fluttered to the floor. Inside John discovered it contained a small, rusted key. John tried the key in the hutch drawer. It didn’t fit. Disappointed, John had a thought and made a call.

“Sarah? This is John from the consignment shop.”

“Oh, hi John,” Sarah responded pleasantly, “it’s good to hear from you.”

John thought again how distractedly feminine Sarah’s voice was. “Um, hey… I just wanted to follow up on the delivery of that chest. Did it arrive okay?”

“Yes, it did. It came a couple hours ago.”

“Any luck getting it opened?”

“No!” she answered sounding quite unhappy.

“Well, I found a key and seeing as I’m coming out that way for an estate sale tomorrow … Well, I was thinking I could swing by afterwards and see if it works…” John explained hesitantly.

“YES! I’d love that!” Sarah exclaimed.

John smiled. He couldn’t wait to meet her!

The drive was uneventful. To pass the time, John imagined and re-imagined what kind of woman was in possession of a voice as lovely as Sarah’s. Whatever she was, he was about to find out.

Upon arrival a young, pretty, medium tall, blonde woman with a dimpled smile stepped out of the house. It only took a moment for John to decide the drive was worth it.

“John?” Sarah asked as she drew closer.

John reached out to shake Sarah’s hand. It was surprisingly soft and warm. “Pleased to meet you, Sarah.”

“I’m happy to meet you, too” she said, shyly, dropping her big, green, luminous eyes for a moment. She looked back up at him quickly, and added, “And thank you so much for coming all the way out here just to drop off a key.”

“It’s no trouble,” John responded, warmly. “Like I said, I was in the area.”

Sarah turned to lead John to the garage. John was content to follow behind Sarah and enjoy the view.

At the chest John intoned, “I’m really hoping this works,” as he inserted the key. To his surprise if fit! He slowly turned the key. The lock made an audible “click,” and . . . the chest opened!

John grinned at Sarah. “Well, what do you know!” He exclaimed. Sarah grinned back at him, her eyes sparkling with delight. Inside there was a mixture of all sorts of goods; a bundle of love letters, several old journals, a wedding dress wrapped delicately in paper. Sarah quickly sorted through the items. But instead of looking pleased, her smile faded.

‘Uh Oh!’ John thought. ‘I don’t know what she was expecting, but it wasn’t this.’ “You seem disappointed with the contents of the chest…”

She sighed and said, “Yes. I’m looking for something specific and I had hoped it would be in there.”

“Well, I feel terrible for selling you a chest that hasn’t what you want inside. I’ll gladly refund you the money…”

“No!” she said abruptly and a bit too forcefully. Then more calmly continued, “I really love it and want to keep it. It’s just…” she trailed off and bit her lower lip.

After a moment of silence between them he started anew, “The least I can do is invite you to lunch. It might help you clear your mind a bit.”

Sarah wanted to say no, but she did like John and lunch would be a nice way to set things right in her mind. She finally agreed.

Sarah insisted on driving as John’s truck was full from his earlier estate shop. They took a long drive as she showed him the city and ended with a leisurely walk down the main shopping strip. There Sarah pointed out a shop for lease that seemed to have ‘Consignment Store’ written all over it. John was surprised at himself. Sure, he’d been single a long time, but this seemed all too soon to have thoughts like that.

They ended up at a local diner. Over lunch Sarah opened up to her life, divorce, and the reason for her frantic search. She was hoping to begin a wedding venue, and though she had some idea where to start, she was not certain that she could. The worst part was that she needed $20k and she had no idea where to turn to, to get it. Finally, she ended saying, “…and for that reason I’m looking for the black notebook.”

John was confused. All the rest of it made sense but the end was really out in left-field! “But what does a black notebook have to do with starting up a wedding venue?”

Sarah laughed and said, “I know I’m going to sound crazy here but the book is a ‘wishing book’.” She looked expectantly at John for his obvious reaction. But it didn’t come.

‘She’s cute… maybe a bit batty, but who isn’t’, he thought to himself. Instead he gently assured her, “Go on…”

She tried to read his face but simply couldn’t. She explained the stories she was told by her grandparents about the wishing book and how she hoped to use it to get the wedding venue up and running. Then, pulling out an old letter written to her by her grandmother, she read off the instructions to get the black notebook to work:

Write in the book your deepest desires

Believe in them completely with all your inner fire

Close it up tight while you wish with your might

And open to cause them to appear in your sight!

John was left flabbergasted. ‘Wishes! Really? But wait… then the estate sale items came from her grandparents!’ “So you’re telling me that the chest I sent you belonged to your grandparents? Then the other items I collected belong to them too! I don’t feel right keeping your grandparents stuff from you. You know, I also bought a hutch and a few other items.” He paused for a second thinking. ‘So what if she believed in wishes. My ex believed the moon landing was a hoax’. “Let me gather them up and see if I can find that black notebook for you. Then if you’re ok with it I’ll bring them by a little later this week.”

“Oh! I would love that!” and Sarah gave him an immense hug that tingled him to the core!

The next evening after a long full day John stayed late to work on the hutch. He was finally able to get the drawer worked open, and upon pulling it out discovered a small black notebook that was lodged into the back of the drawer. “So that’s why you were stuck!” He idly thumbed through it. Sure enough it appeared to be filled, page after page, with a long list of wishes. “Writing a couple of wishes I get,” he said aloud to himself, “but writing wishes over and over… that’s odd.”

John thought it over. Finally he decided he’d try it out. Thinking carefully he decided to try something big and obvious! “But what…?” he asked himself. “I know!” he said snapping his fingers. “I want to see a 6’ tall dragon statue. The chances of that magically appearing would be pretty slim.” He wrote the request and closed the book. Then with eyes closed tightly he waited. Slowly he opened them, and… nothing!

John shook his head, laughed at himself and tossed the black notebook back into the hutch drawer and closed it to keep it from getting lost.

As he approached Malad the following morning he noticed that he was low on gas so he pulled into the Maverick to fuel up. At the pump he noticed the tape he’d used to secure the drawer had worked loose. He ripped it off and the drawer popped open. ‘Oh, the book! I’d better stuff that in the cab’. As he stored the book and grabbed new tape, a trailer pulled up next to him… on it was a 6’ dragon statue! John couldn’t believe his eyes! “Wha-what is that?” he stammered.

“That’s the high school’s new statue! We’re the Malad City Dragons!” the boy said proudly. “Gorgeous isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” mumbled John. “It’s really something.”

By the time John arrived at Sarah’s he’d had plenty of time to think. Sarah heard him approach and rushed outside to see him. “John!” she gushed. “It’s so good to see you! I see you brought the hutch! How was your drive? Were you able to find the black notebook?”

John smiled a broad smile. “Looks like someone’s happy to see me,” he teased. “And what notebook? I thought you only wanted the hutch.”

“What? But you know I wanted… Oh! You’re teasing me. Well, just for that buddy I might not invite you in for supper! And just so you know it’s going to be incredibly good! I’m told I’m quite the cook!”

“Woah! I’m teasing! I have it in my cab.”

Shortly John had the book in Sarah’s hand and the hutch wheeled into her home.

“You have a lovely place here Sarah! And I can tell you have an artistic touch when it comes to decorating! So, should we try the book?”

“Thank you! No, I want this day to be magical… but I don’t want to spoil dinner either. Just in case.”

After dinner, John had Sarah write her wish. Sarah wrote: I wish for $20,000 to start up my wedding venue.

He let her close her eyes and open them and look disappointed before he told her what he’d figured out. Placing the book in the hutch drawer he closed it and slowly opened it. Once again it seemed to get stuck. Working it open John found the reason. A wad of taped up old stock certificates had come loose from the roof of the drawer. As he pulled them out John knew what they were and what they were worth.

As they celebrated, they kissed. Sarah then turned to John and asked if he wanted to make a wish.

John simply replied “No”.

His wish had already come true.