What Goes Around, Comes Around

It’s Saturday night and Belinda is in a noisy pub. She is anxious for a few reasons. She hates giving up time on her business for pleasure as she is a workaholic who is struggling to make ends meet. She really loves pubs, the music, the laughing, the atmosphere, the cheap drinks, and oversized meals. So it was ok to give up some time, even though it was for a first date, the other reason Belinda is feeling anxious.

Belinda is enjoying her favourite meal, medium-rare steak, chips, and salad with an espresso martini. Across from her is her date. A blind date, that she’s been set up with via a friend, of a friend, of a friend. Dating these days is quite hard so she will try anything to find love. Belinda is a hopeless romantic at heart but is losing faith in love but will always continue to look for it as deep down she believes there is one amazing man out there for her.

Her date is quite handsome, funny, polite, he is dressed like he doesn’t want to be noticed, very plain, black jeans, grey shirt, and a black cap, his smile is magnetic.

She is surprisingly enjoying the night, she finishes her meal and excuses herself to the bathroom. On the way back her phone rings it's Jess, she lights up. It's the friend who connected her to the friend, of a friend, that set her up on the date.

“Hey, Belinda. I’ve been dying to hear how your date went”?

“Hey Jess, I am still on it”. She whispers.

“Oh yes, do tell!!”. Jess is excited to hear the news.

“Well, it is going really well”. Long pause… “Oh no, it seemed to be going great, we were laughing, connecting, then I went to the bathroom and I have just come back… and he’s gone”.

Looking around frantically Belinda can’t see him anywhere.

“Are you sure, maybe he is at the bar”? Jess says baffled

“Yep, I am sure, just looked everywhere, he didn’t even leave a number, I’m never going on a blind date again”!

“Ahhh babe”. Jess sounds very saddened. “I’m so sorry that’s happened. It seems that men just don’t know how to date anymore”.

Belinda sighs “yes I know I’ve had a lot of bad dates, but I’m still positive, oh hang on haha he’s left his little black book on the table, go figure, he’s probably got heaps of ladies on the go. Maybe his number is in there so I can call him and tell him how hurtful it is to ditch a date”. She is laughing sarcastically... Thinking silently, Belinda asks “should I read it Jess”?

Jess says laughing. “Haha hells yes! Read it, maybe his number is in there then you can ring him and give him a serve hahaha. He can’t do that to you it’s terrible”.

Belinda is laughing “Let me have a think about it, haha, ok I’ll chat with you later, thanks for making me laugh babe”.

As Belinda hangs up the phone she looks at the little black book across from her. Wondering why would someone bring the book with all the numbers of the women he’s dating on a date. It’s so bizarre, and to leave without a goodbye.

Should she read it? Is it rude? But it would be rude not to try and get it back to him. I mean he is the rude one really, she is just trying to help.

She picks up the book cringing with what she will find and has a flick through, just to see if she can return it to him.

The first thing she reads is an inscription on the inside cover, she can’t make out what it says, it’s in a different language or something.

It reads...

eB luferaC tahW uoY hsiW roF.

“Hmm”, she tries to sound it out awkwardly, “maybe I’ll google that when I get home,” she says softly.

She continues to flip through hoping to find someone’s number to call. But all she finds are different sentences. Each sentence is written on its own individual page in English, so she can make out what they say.

As she is reading the pages, it seems the sentences are written by different people. Each person appears to have written one sentence on three separate pages, with a stamp-like thing over the top of the writing that says...

ruoY hsiW sI yM dnammoC

And every fourth page is blank with a different stamp in the middle, that says...

detnarG

Belinda starts to read what is written on a few of the pages.

The first three pages have quite young handwriting. The kind that is like when you are learning to write your letters in school. The pages say;

A puppy

A big block of chocolate

A new friend at school

She flips through to a few pages down and this handwriting is very soft running writing. They read;

A new boyfriend who loves me

$35,000

A job helping others

She keeps flipping through and the next three pages, the handwriting is all in caps, it’s very strong writing, the pages read...

A trip around the world

A new sports car

A new gold watch

But these three pages are her favourite. Very sweet and caring, it’s just nicely and clearly printed out, they say...

My family to never argue

My best friend in my life forever

To be a Carer

There is definitely a theme happening here. But what does it all mean?

“I need to get home and google, and research,” she says.

She arrives home safely, her cat greets her with his purrs and ankle rubs, they both go to her office where he sits at her feet, and she opens her laptop.

Before she does anything she decides to decode the stamp that is across each page first. The one that reads...

detnarG

She googles it and finds a list of photographers, people’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages, groups but stumbles across a decoder… She types detnarG

She finds a list of words it could be;

Grated

Gander

Granted

“The last letter is capitalised, that has to be a clue” she says out loud. That’s it. The words are backward. It says Granted!!

So if that says Granted the first inscription must be backward too.

By the glow of the computer screen, she types out

luferaC tahW uoY hsiW roF

Then decodes it by going backward. She reads out loud

“Be Careful What You Wish For”.

“OH MY, it is what I thought, it is a book of wishes”! She yells waking her cat. “Holy moly, what do I do with this”?

Just as she says that the words turn around in the right order and another sentence under it appears.

“You Get Three”

These are instructions she realises. Then slowly appears new instruction

“One wish per page”

Then another instruction appears

“Choose wisely”

The last sentence

“Your wish is my command”

Belinda realises that each sentence is a wish. “Holy moly!! This is amazing, better than winning the lottery”!! Belinda is beaming.

Just as she says that the pages flip frantically. It stops on one specific page she hadn’t seen.

Like the others, it was one sentence that reads

My boss to lose their job and never come back to work again

Over the top it says…

Denied backward

As she flips the page to see if there were more wishes in the same handwriting, there were not but on the blank page after the wish it said...

dehsinaB

Banished.

As she reads that out the words change once again “Be careful what you wish for”.

It flips again to another page that reads

All the money in the world. Again stamped Banished.

The book is showing her that if you do something negative or selfish you will be banished. From where though, the planet? Using the book again?

She didn’t want to take that risk and decides to sleep on it as to not make a mistake.

As she drifts off to sleep she starts dreaming of all the things she would ask for. Chocolate, money, a boyfriend hehe, a bigger house, to help more people in the world by furthering her business. So many things and only three wishes she didn’t want to ruin her chances but also knew it was three more opportunities she had before she was given the book.

In the morning she jumped out of bed and decided to flip to the last filled in pages of the book, that must be Jason, her dates pages. He wasn’t banished so that would help her choose.

They read

Unlimited supply of scotch

$50,000

A beautiful, funny, intelligent girlfriend

They were all granted.

So she decided her first wish. She didn’t want it to be too over the top, something she had been waiting for but couldn’t afford herself. An easy start.

She opened the book and with her favourite glitter pen, she wrote…

An infrared sauna

Belinda had been struggling with her health due to extreme workaholic burnout and her grandma could use it too, so many healing benefits…

The book whirled, glitter and sparks and letters flew all around, the room lit up and then nothing. Until...

“Knock, Knock”.

It couldn’t be. She opened the door and there it was, she was sure she could hear a harp playing, was this the sauna”?

“OH MY GOODNESS, it is It really worked”!

As she dragged the sauna inside she decided to do the next one, after all, who knew if there was a time limit. She didn’t want to find out.

She opened the page, and stamped on her wish was;

Your Wish Is My Command

“It sure is” she giggled excitedly.

She got out her glitter pen and the next thing she wished for was;

$20,000

This was how much she needed to get her new TV show helping people with their relationships on TV. Belinda is a relationship coach and wants to help people all over the world heal their relationships. It’s not too over the top and just enough to get her started.

Next minute, after the book commotion, she receives a text message from her bank.

You have received a deposit of $20,000 in your account ending 0416

She dropped her phone shaking trying to check the balance, when she finally got the face recognition to work, as she was crying, yep sure enough, her balance was $20,111.

She was so grateful, now instead of blasting Jason, her date, she wanted to thank him. So she wrote on the last page.

To thank Jason

Two things happened. The first thing was her phone rang, it was Jason She wasn’t surprised. Before he could, she asked to meet him for a coffee and to thank him and he delightfully agreed.

As she went to close it, the book did not stamp Your Wish is My Command, it said…

What Goes Around Comes Around - One More

She hadn’t read that before and couldn’t believe it. Showing her that there are consequences for your actions and rewards for your actions also. It just depends on which path you choose and we are in control of that ourselves.

So she wrote;

For everyone to find their happiness.

Instantly the book stamped...

More Surprises to Come

Your Wish Is My Command

It flipped to the next blank page before it stamped Granted, it said...

Choose The Next. No Explanation

She met Jason for coffee later that day. He was apologetic, Belinda understood. They shared their experiences and left the book with a pen, and some food by a homeless person. Hoping they wished for exactly what they needed.

The book was right, there was one last surprise. Belinda and Jason fell in love. It goes to show that nothing happens by chance, everything happens for a reason.

dnE ehT