The Little Black Book

Paul was in a bad mood. It wasn’t just the cold windy rain of early February, the worst time of year as everyone deceased he ever knew died in February. It was everything. His life, or lack thereof, his long standing self-loathing, which also made it difficult to like any other human being, and his utter failure at achieving what he thought he should have by now at the ripe old age of 45. Sure he had a family, house, and job, but his family thought he was no fun, his house was falling apart, and his job was decent but like most other jobs in the world, meaningless and populated by self-serving sycophants. All of this made the biting wind and freezing rain that much more irksome as he tried to stumble his way to his car after a long night at the office and brief workout at the gym. He rounded the corner to the parking lot when he heard a strange noise near the dark trees. He was going to ignore it but curiosity won him over. The wind died down and now the rain was ice. The sound of ice hitting everything was the first pleasant feeling he had all night. Then he saw IT. Or rather, HER.

At first all he could make out was a little black book on the ground, the wind had blown some of the pages around and now tiny specks of ice were filling it up. Then, peaking out from the trees, he saw an upturned hand a few feet away from the book. It was dark but he could see that it was a woman’s hand. His stomach lurched. “Hello? Do you need help?” He bent down to push the evergreen branches aside. She was young, wearing a thick white coat and hat, her eyes shut but she appeared to be mumbling.

“What happened? Miss? ”

She opened her eyes and found his face. “Are you ok?” he asked.

“Paul…” she said. His stomach lurched again. How does she know my name?

“Do…Do I know you?”

“Paul, it’s your turn.”

“ What? Who are you?”

“The book, Paul.” He went to retrieve the book, it felt heavier than it looked. When he turned back towards the woman, she was gone.

What the heck?? He looked around for any trace of her. There were none. How did she….? The wind picked up again and the temperature dropped noticeably. The wind chill made him feel like he was breathing in daggers, piercing his lungs with every breath. He took the book and ran back to his car, slammed the door shut and turned on the engine. It was still cold enough to see his breath and he turned on the heat. What just happened? Did I imagine her? No…. He still had the book. As his car warmed up he opened the book, flipping through the pages. It was filled with cursive handwriting. You don’t see people write much like that anymore...

His phone lit up, it was his wife. “Can you get some stuff from the store on your way home? The kids are starving, can you hurry up please?”

“Ok I’m on my way.” Paul grunted, put the book down and continued home.

It wasn’t until a few days later that he remembered the book. Finally his day off and he was going back to the gym for another monotonous workout. He found the book on the floor of his car under his gym bag. Oh….yeah… He remembered the woman, still wondering if she were real and what happened to her. He opened it and found the book was filled with names, and what seemed like directions.

Jerry Smith…. get a job at high school coaching, then move up to principal. Find a kid who needs help, named Will Hunter, take him to a pro football game and he will become a linebacker.

Jania Donalds….get out of that apartment and move west. Save up money for school, become a doctor.

Clancy Williams….start eating right, ask Kate out on a date, get married and have kids.

What are these? Paul thumbed through page after page, noticing that the first few pages had been crossed out, like a to-do list. Some of the entries were quite banal and ordinary, others seemed like unattainable goals. Some were very specific, others extraordinarily vague, yet Paul couldn’t put the book down. Then he saw a name he knew and nearly choked on his own saliva. Mary Winters….that was his mother! His heart beat fast and his bowels dropped. He read her entry: learn how to play piano, write a song- play it in front of an audience, get a phone call from my kids, feel important again. He didn’t know she wanted to play piano, let alone aspire to play in front of others. A phone call…When was the last time he called her? He couldn’t remember… probably Christmas. Two months ago?! How did all that time go by?

A phone call was easy so why not? He picked up the phone and dialed her number. “Hey, Mom how are you doing?” Paul had a nice conversation with her for about 20 minutes. He felt good, his spirits lifting. He looked back at her entry and noticed “get a phone call from my kids” was crossed out. Paul stared at the line, tracing it with his finger. WOW. What is this?

Paul set about his new found work. It wasn’t easy but it was fun. He tried to find as many people as he could that he knew, but most of the names were strangers. He had no idea where they lived. What if he picked a name but it was the wrong person? How could he make some things happen if he didn’t know a person? Like that guy Clancy, was he supposed to find him and tell him to ask out Kate? Sounds like a good way to get punched in the face…or arrested for stalking… There was no google search answers for “how to use a magic wish book.” Why was this happening to him? how long was he supposed to do this?

One day while reading through the book he found one for a kid. Billy Tomlin…not worry about lockdown drills anymore, my parents stop fighting, get a bike, have a best friend. He wanted to help this kid, but how? A strange grown man buys your son a bike, yeah that’s normal. Paul had to spend more time on this one. First he had to find out where this kid was, luckily there were a bunch of Tomlin families in the phonebook (yeah remember phonebooks?), but did any of them have a kid named Billy? He found one of the houses on Zillow. It belonged to an old couple seeking to downsize. No kids. The next place was an apartment, no help there. The third was a small house with a trampoline. Maybe that was it. As he drove by he could see a bunch of bikes up against the house. He wants a new bike? Maybe the book was wrong, but this was the last house so it was worth a shot.

When he got home there was a dirty dog running around his living room. Paul didn’t have a dog. “What the heck is going on here?!” he yelled. “Julie you can’t just let a strange dog into our house! How do you know it doesn’t have rabies? Where is your mom?” She was out. Of course!

“Well maybe we can put up signs and then if no one claims him we can keep him?”

“Keep him?! No way! This house is crazy enough. Me and your mom don’t have time to take care of a dog, it’s hard enough to take care of you and work!”

“But Dad, I’ll take care of him.”

Paul laughed. “I don’t see you getting up at 3am every night to let this dog out.”

“But Dad….”

“No! I’ll let you try to find its owners for a few days, it can stay in the garage. That’s it!”

“I hate you!” Yeah I hate me too.

There was more attempted discussion/persuasion about the dog but it wasn’t practical in their crazy house. Paul would have loved a dog but there was no one who could take care of it properly.

No one claimed the dog after three days. He didn’t want to bring it to the animal shelter. How about little Billy? He wants a best friend! Yes, but how? He couldn’t exactly drop the dog off and say here kid have a free dog. Or could he?

Paul brought the dog to Billy’s house. He saw a kid get off the bus and walk towards the house. That must be Billy, here goes nothing. He let the dog out of the car. The dog made a beeline across the street but Billy didn’t see him. Paul got out and ran after the dog.

“Hey kid, can you catch that dog?” he yelled. “Yeah you, get that dog!” Billy stood frozen, torn between wanting to help a dog and avoid stranger danger. Paul ran after the dog and chased him over to Billy.

“Hey kid, do you know who’s dog this is? I just found him running around.” Billy was unsure if he should answer. “Alright well I guess I’ll have to bring him to the pound. My wife is allergic to dogs so we can’t keep him. Too bad, he’s a cute little guy.”

“No! Mister, please don’t do that!”

“Well kid I can’t just leave him here.”

Billy thought for a moment. “Let me take him, I’ve always wanted a dog, so does my mom, but we could never afford one. Maybe she’ll convince my dad to let us keep him.”

Hallelujah!

Later that night Paul checked the kid’s entry and it hadn’t changed. I guess the kid’s parents didn’t let him keep the dog. The next day still no change. Paul was getting nervous. Should he go check up on the kid and the dog? It went against his better judgment but he did it. He saw them playing outside in the yard together. He snapped a quick photo and showed it to his daughter at dinner. She seemed surprised, but smiled. “What, don’t think your old man can do something nice?” Paul teased. She rolled her eyes and went back to her phone. But the smile was still there.

That night Paul checked the book again and saw “have a best friend.” It worked! He did it! Not sure how to get your parents to stop fighting though kid, he thought. Gotta learn that one myself. Paul fell asleep before his wife that night, seemingly for the first time. She noticed the little black book on his chest as he dozed.

What is this? She thought, as she had never seen it before. She noticed the beautiful cursive writing, and a lot of it was crossed out. That’s odd. She flipped through it, seeing names and what looked like things people wanted. On the last page she found Paul’s name followed by the words “get $20,000 somehow, be a good person,” which were crossed out. She checked their bank account and found a deposit of $20,000 from “Little Black Book.”

“Oh my god Paul, did you see this?!!” she screamed, waking him up. “Is this for real?! What is this?!”

“It’s my new job honey, go back to bed,” he mumbled, smiling.